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TREATISE  ON  ROADS, 


HISTORY,  CHARACTER  AND  UTILITY; 

BEING  THE 

SUBSTANCE  OF  TWO  LECTURES 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

YOUNG  MEN'S  ASSOCIATION  OF  TUB  CITY  OF  ALBANY. 

V  "     *   *       '      fc.'*' 

*• 

T» 

BY  S.  DE  WITT  BLOODGOOD. 


ALBANY  : 

PUBLISHED      BY      OLIVER      STEKLK. 
7.   Munsell,   Printer. 

1838. 


TE 


INSCRIBED 

"•f 

TO  THE  YOUNG  MEN'S  ASSOCIATION 

OF  THE  CITY  OF  ALBANY. 


Jk 

iJiyoo 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  writer  of  this,  having  been  struck 
with  the  importance  of  giving  that  class 
.of  internal  improvements,  called  ROADS,  a 
due  share  of  public  consideration,  at  a  time 
when  so  many  projects  are  on  foot,  some 
of  them  addressed  to  the  cupidity  of  specula- 
tion, others  to  advance  the  common  welfare, 
recently  attempted  to  investigate  the  sub- 
ject, and  to  form  some  general  opinions  of  its 
history,  and  characteristics. 

No  where  could  this  information  be  ob- 
tained in  the  desired  shape.  And  it  was 
only  after  long  and  laborious  researches 
that  the  scanty  facts  were  obtained  which 
form  the  groundwork  of  this  little  treatise. 

Modern  engineers  have  rather  embodied 
their  own  experience  in  works  relating  to 


VI.  INTRODUCTION. 

particular  projects  under  their  charge,  than 
discussed  the  general  tendency  of  the  sys- 
tem. Sir  Henry  Parnell,  of  the  Institution 
of  Civil  Engineers,  in  London,  has  given 
us. the  most  valuable  work  we  possess  of 
a  general  character,  but  he  has  not  at- 
tempted to  enter  into  those  details  which 
were  found  interesting  enough,  in  our 
opinion,  to  justify  their  collection  in  the 
following  pages. 

If  a  general  view  of  the  subject,  if  its 
literary  as  well  as  mechanical  history  is 
worthy  of  being  rescued  from  the  dust  of 
centuries,  the  writer  hopes  that  his  humble 
efforts  will  not  be  entirely  in  vain. 

Albany,  October,  1838. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 


It  is  conceded  that  no  age  of  the  world 
was  ever  marked  by  a  greater  regard  for 
the  useful  than  that  in  which  we  live.  The 
monuments  of  antiquity,  grand  and  impres- 
sive even  in  their  ruins,  seem  as  often  to  have 
been  erected  through  caprice  as  for  utility. 
The  pyramids  survive  triumphantly  the  ra- 
vages of  time,  but  why  such  a  vast  expense 
was  incurred  of  labor  and  of  money,  is  one 
of  the  problems  yet  to  be  solved,  and  one 
that  overtasks  the  most  willing  antiquarian. 
In  our  own  time  all  popular  pursuits  appear 
to  be  influenced,  if  not  directed,  by  a  regard 
for  the  human  condition  and  the  desire  of 
making  it  more  in  accordance  with  the  true 
objects  of  life.  The  projector  who  cannot 
(apparently  at  least)  demonstrate  this  to  be 
the  purpose  of  his  schemes,  is  sure  to  be 
without  patronage,  and  almost  without  hear- 


8  TREATISE    ON    ROADS. 


ers.  Even  those  articles  of  fancy  and  taste, 
once  the  exclusive  property  of  the  rich  and 
great,  but  now  obtained  and  enjoyed  by  the 
community  at  large,  make  their  appeal  to 
some  principle  of  utility  as  their  chief  recom- 
mendation. 

It  is  from  this  tendency  of  the  age,  that  so 
much  investigation,  so  much  research,  so 
much  talent,  has  been  displayed  in  popular 
forms,  and  sought  each  its  reward  in  the 
practical  advantages  it  conferred  through  a 
new  medium  on  a  new  auditory.  And  it 
is  from  the  consciousness  of  the  truth  of  this 
feature  of  our  times,  that  we  venture  to  pass 
over  more  amusing  themes,  for  one  which  is 
intimately  connected  with  the  comfort  of  in- 
dividuals and  the  prosperity  of  nations. 

The  history  of  roads,  those  means  of  land 
communication,  indispensable  to  civiliza- 
tion ;  without  which  mankind,  and  even  those 
of  the  same  country,  would  live  strangers  to 
each  other;  the  absence  of  which  is  a  sure 
evidence  of  barbarism,  and  whose  mainten- 
ance and  preservation  are  infallible  tests  of 
national  prosperity,  is  a  field  vast  enough 
for  the  ambition  of  the  most  successful 
writer.  As  at  intervals  these  researches 
were  prosecuted,  they  grew  in  interest  and 
magnitude,  and  it  is  regretted  after  all  that 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  VJ 

the  following  pages  will  only  present  an  out- 
line of  a  subject,  connected  with  the  most 
remarkable  periods  of  antiquity,  their  social, 
commercial  and  political  relations,  and  which 
in  our  own  time  has  assumed  a  still  more  im- 
portant and  interesting  character. 

When  the  celebrated  Dr.  Johnson  de- 
clared, as  he  was  whirled  along  in  a  post 
chaise  over  the  beautiful  roads  of  England, 
that  he  was  enjoying  one  of  the  greatest 
pleasures  of  life,  he  overlooked  the  happi- 
ness, which  the  existence  of  good  roads  con- 
fers on  those  who  do  not  travel,  but  who  re- 
ceive at  their  own  doors,  all  that  necessity 
demands,  all  that  comfort  requires,  all  that 
taste  can  sigh  for.  Human  existence  is  plea- 
sant or  painful  as  its  wants  are  satisfied  or 
denied,  and  of  course  that  system  of  internal 
communication  which  provides  for  them,  be- 
comes one  of  the  first  cares  of  civilized  soci- 
ety, one  of  the  great  objects  of  all  intelligent 
legislation. 

In  the  savage  state,  the  entire  freedom  of 
the  individual,  that  natural  liberty  which 
does  away  with  all  restraints  of  law,  and  all 
subjection  of  our  passions  to  reason,  is  ac- 
companied by  the  most  miserable  depend- 
ence on  circumstances.  Nature,  whose  gifts 
2 


10  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

when  cultivated  and  enjoyed,  becomes  the 
kind  mother  of  the  industrious  and  the  pro- 
vident, is  to  uncivilized  man,  at  best  but  a 
fickle  friend,  and  oftentimes  a  relentless  en- 
emy. 

The  wind  which  fills  the  canvass  of  the 
deep  laden  bark,  and  bears  to  its  destined 
port  the  rich  and  useful  products  of  other 
lands,  tears  down  the  wigwam  of  the  sav- 
age and  leaves  him  exposed  and  shelterless. 
The  prosperous  gale  becomes  the  pitiless 
blast.  The  early  and  the  latter  rain  which 
makes  the  husbandman  rejoice  in  the  bounty 
of  Providence  ;  which  fills  the  reservoir,  and 
impels  the  untiring  wheel  of  the  manufactur- 
er, inundates  the  habitation  of  the  aboriginal, 
swells  the  flood,  over  which  he  would  pass, 
and  deprives  him  of  the  scanty  sustenance 
derived  from  his  spear  and  his  bow.  Man 
in  this  state  of  existence  becomes  a  wander- 
er. He  must  go  to  the  tree  or  the  fountain, 
to  the  lake  or  the  hill  side,  where  for  a  time 
he  satiates  his  hunger  and  quenches  his  thirst. 
As  the  supply  diminishes,  at  the  greatest 
personal  inconvenience  he  is  obliged  to  seek 
some  other  spot  where  he  may  prolong  his 
life.  His  food  must  be  run  down  on  the  prai- 
rie from  the  herds,  which  nomades  like  him- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  11 

self,  have  a  wild  and  uncertain  existence,  or 
drawn  at  times  from  ice-bound  lakes,  with 
.slow  and  painful  exertion.  The  tribe  of 
which  he  is  a  member  cannot  establish  their 
residence  any  where  permanently,  if  they 
would.  Their  sustenance  must  be  sought, 
where  it  can  be  found,  since  it  cannot  be 
conveyed  to  them,  and  their  surplus  for 
the  moment,  hid  in  the  earth  for  future  ne- 
cessity, generally  becomes  the  prey  of  other 
tribes,  or  of  the  quick  scented  animals,  which 
follow  on  the  trail.  Life  is  consumed  in  a 
struggle  for  life,  and  the  nobler  qualities  of 
our  nature  have  no  time  for  expansion,  and 
no  place  for  improvement.  Without  perma- 
nence of  habitation  and  constant  facilities  for 
intercommunication,  no  progress  in  civiliza- 
tion can  be  counted  on. 

All  travellers  tell  us  that  the  native  tribes 
of  uncivilized  lands,  are  constantly  exposed 
to  the  horrors  of  starvation ;  while  political 
economists  appeal  triumphantly  in  their  ar- 
guments in  favor  of  commercial  intercourse, 
to  the  fact  that  in  refined  and  civilized  na 
tions,  famine  is  now  unknown.  The  start- 
ling and  affecting  pictures  such  as  are  pre- 
sented to  us  by  Captain  Back,  and  Wash- 
ington Irving,  in  their  most  recent  works,  of 


12  TREATISE   ON   ROADS. 

the  frequent  horrors  which  attend  the  north- 
ern and  northwestern  tribes,  and  arise  from 
the  scantiness  or  uncertainty  of  their  sup- 
plies of  food,  are  unfortunately  too  common, 
and  the  eye  of  humanity  cannot  glance  at 
the  great  mass  of  mankind,  and  notice  the 
millions  and  millions  of  our  race  living  in 
anarchy,  in  poverty,  and  in  ignorance,  with- 
out shedding  a  tear  of  compassion  over  their 
strange  and  hapless  destiny.  Nor  is  it 
merely  in  regard  to  the  physical  condition 
of  man,  that  the  absence  of  intercommunica- 
tion as  enjoyed  in  civilized  countries,  is  so 
great  a  misfortune.  To  the  early  settler 
who  finds  the  dangerous  river,  the  stormy 
flood,  and  the  trackless  forest  interposing  in- 
superable obstacles  to  the  transportation  of 
food,  and  to  the  poor  savage  who  after  kil- 
ling his  game,  is  unable  to  carry  it  to  the 
tent  where  his  wife  and  children  are  dying 
of  hunger,  other  and  more  valuable  benefits 
are  denied  by  the  absence  of  those  improve- 
ments which  distinguish  the  civilized  state. 
Animal  existence  most  concerns  the  barba- 
rian, but  among  men  in  civilized  life,  it  is  but 
an  accessary  to  the  growth  of  the  higher 
principles  of  our  nature.  In  a  constant 
struggle  against  the  elements  for  the  support 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  13 

of  life,  its  nobler  objects  are  lost  sight  of,  or 
unappreciated,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  fact, 
that  those  nations  are  most  degraded,  whose 
means  of  subsistence  are  the  most  precari- 
ous. It  would  be  a  curious  subject  of  en- 
quiry to  ascertain  and  compare  the  relative 
degrees  of  civilization  to  be  found  in  those 
countries,  which  are  partially  or  wholly  defi- 
cient in  the  means  of  intercommunication.  A 
table  might  be  formed  with  considerable  ac- 
curacy which  would  shew  their  actual  con- 
dition by  means  of  this  test.  The  most  bar- 
barous people  will  be  found  to  be  those, 
among  whom  the  system  of  roads,  bridges 
and  canals,  and  the  facilities  of  transporta- 
tion are  unknown.  On  the  contrary,  the 
most  enlightened  and  the  most  prosperous, 
are  those  whose  inhabitants  live  in  the  clos- 
est connections,  social  and  commercial,  whose 
territory  is  intersected  in  all  directions  by 
well  constructed  and  densely  thronged  ave- 
nues, and  whose  means  of  travel  and  of 
trade,  have  bound  its  inhabitants  in  friend- 
ship, and  the  ties  of  interest. 

Let  us  elucidate  this  principle  by  reference 
to  well  known  facts.  Even  to  civilized  na- 
tions, those  indeed  having  extensive  domains, 
and  great  political  connections,  it  will  be 


14  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

found  applicable.  We  are  all  familiar  with 
the  history  and  resources  of  Spain.  That 
country  which  by  turns  has  been  the  thea- 
tre of  Roman,  Moorish  and  Gallic  conquest, 
though  the  land  of  the  olive  and  the  vine,  and 
the  home  of  the  richly  freighted  galleons,  is 
still  the  scene  of  ignorance  and  poverty.  It 
has  not  improved  the  advantages,  nor  over- 
come the  disadvantages  of  nature.  "No  man" 
says  a  recent  distinguished  traveller,  "  but 
a  botanist  can  travel  with  any  pleasure 
through  the  barren  tracts  of  old  Castile." 
The  easy  prosecution  of  internal  improve- 
ments is  unquestionably  rendered  difficult 
by  the  character  of  the  surface,  but  the  Spa- 
nish government  at  one  time  projected  a 
grand  canal  to  connect  the  Mediterranean 
with  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  by  the  route  of  As- 
turias,  old  Castile  and  Arragon.  Only  a 
small  portion  of  this  work  was  ever  finished, 
and  the  transactions  connected  with  it  are 
of  course  very  limited.  This  is  almost  a  so- 
litary effort  on  their  part  to  facilitate  their 
internal  navigation.  The  main  roads  to  the 
capitol  and  some  of  the  chief  towns,  are  kept 
in  good  order,  as  a  well  understood  matter 
of  necessity,  but  the  general  communications 
of  the  country,  and  those  by  which  the  trans- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  15 

portation  of  goods  is  effected,  are  little  else 
than  the  imprinted  footsteps  of  the  weary 
mules,  upon  the  rough  rocks  which  they  are 
compelled  to  climb.  The  consequences  of  this 
state  of  things  are  apparent  in  the  difficulty 
and  danger  of  conveying  merchandize  from 
one  part  of  Spain  to  the  other,  the  heavy 
and  ruinous  charges  made  by  the  carriers 
for  their  services,  the  temptations  to  plunder 
afforded  by  the  insecurity  of  the  routes,  and 
the  scarcity,  and  dearness  of  a  vast  propor- 
tion of  the  articles  indispensable  to  the  com- 
forts of  life. 

On  a  recent  occasion,  when  a  supply  of 
grain  was  required  by  the  government  at 
Madrid,  it  took  30,000  horses  and  mules  to 
transport  480  tons  of  wheat  from  old  Castile 
to  that  city.  On  a  good  turnpike  road,  this 
would  have  easily  been  accomplished  by  one 
sixth  of  that  number  of  animals ;  on  a  canal 
at  a  speed  of  four  miles  an  hour,  by  about 
fifteen,  on  a  rail  way,  by  the  exertions  of  two 
locomotive  engines  of  the  first  class. 

The  city  of  Cadiz  though  founded  1200 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  contains  even 
now  but  60,000  inhabitants,  and  though  ad- 
mirably situated  for  foreign  trade  and  so  far 
coming  within  the  general  law  which  causes 


16  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

the  rise  of  towns  and  cities,  and  which  we 
shall  presently  notice,  yet  for  the  want  of  pro- 
per channels  of  communication  \vith  the  inte- 
rior, and  the  oppressive  duties  charged  upon 
articles  of  merchandize  every  time  they 
change  hands,  it  never  can  become  as  popu- 
lous or  important  as  those  great  European 
and  American  towns  which  are  centres  of  in- 
numerable avenues,  the  points  in  which  the 
vivifying  rays  of  commerce  are  concentrated. 
On  the  other  hand,  Switzerland,  a  moun- 
tainous and  sterile  country,  with  only  about 
19,000  square  miles  of  territory  and  2,000,- 
000  of  inhabitants,  while  Spain  possesses  an 
area  of  179,000  square  miles  and  41,000,000 
of  inhabitants,  is  essentially  prosperous,  in 
consequence  of  its  internal  communications, 
and  the  facilities  they  afford  for  travelling, 
and  the  export  of  domestic  industry.  The 
celebrated  military  road  called  the  Simplon, 
which  will  preserve  the  memory  of  Napo- 
leon, longer  perhaps  than  even  his  famous 
battles,  has  produced  the  most  important 
commercial  advantages  to  the  Helvetians. 
Another  over  the  Splugen,  the  work  of  the 
Austrians  since  the  death  of  Napoleon,  and 
designed  to  facilitate  the  communication  be- 
tween Lombardy  and  the  Tyrol  has  also  had 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  17 

the  most  decided  influence  on  their  prosperi- 
ty. The  two  cantons  of  Uri  and  Tessino 
completed  about  seven  years  since,  a  fine 
avenue  over  St.  Gothard,  and  indeed  good 
roads  are  every  where  carried  to  the  very 
tops  of  the  Swiss  mountains.  Industry  has 
thus  found  an  outlet,  and  the  very  attrac- 
tions of  the  scenery  thus  rendered  accessible 
to  the  curious,  form  an  item  of  the  national 
prosperity  that  would  scarcely  be  believed, 
were  it  not  for  unquestionable  evidence. 

The  condition  of  society  under  a  system 
of  intercommunication  rises  at  once  to  the 
highest  degree  of  refinement,  and  the  great- 
est equality  of  advantages.  The  most  dis- 
tant places,  are  to  all  desired  intents,  com- 
pletely united.  The  products  of  every  na- 
tion, the  fruits  of  every  clime,  come  within 
reach  of  all.  The  pleasures  of  social  inter- 
course, the  beneficial  discoveries  of  science, 
the  offerings  of  genius,  and  the  works  of  art, 
become  part  and  parcel  of  his  enjoyment, 
who  lives  within  the  circle  of  civilization, 
penetrated  by  these  lines  of  commercial  in- 
tercourse. The  inhabitants  of  the  torrid 
and  the  temperate  zones,  exchange  with  ea- 
gerness the  surplus  of  their  respective  pro- 
ducts. No  one  need  be  beyond  the  reach  of 
3 


18  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

sympathy  or  companionship.  The  loneliest 
inhabitant,  whose  possession  is  crossed  by  a 
canal  or  rail-road,  becomes  in  fact  a  citizen 
of  the  world. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  the 
moral  effect  of  such  a  state  of  things.  The 
bonds  of  human  fellowship  become  closer 
and  dearer  to  us,  the  friendly  relations  which 
Christianity  teaches  us,  are  strengthened  and 
maintained. 

"The  kindred  sons  of  men 

Live  brothers  like,  in  amity  combined." 

Before  we  proceed  to  examine  the  history 
of  roads,  it  may  be  well  to  glance  briefly  at 
the  principles  to  which  they  owe  their  origin, 
and  some  of  the  benefits  of  their  construc- 
tion. It  is  evident,  on  the  discovery  or  early 
settlement  of  any  country,  that  the  first  ef- 
forts of  the  founders  to  establish  colonies, 
are  made  at  the  sea  side,  or  on  the  banks 
of  navigable  rivers.  These  are  the  only 
localities  easily  accessible  to  foreign  com- 
merce, or  the  trade  of  the  interior,  and  thus 
all  great  cities  and  towns  generally  owe 
their  rise  to  their  facilities  for  water  com- 
munication. This  fact  is  pointed  out  by  all 
political  economists,  and  in  this  necessity, 
they  recognize  the  choice  usually  first  made 
by  colonists. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  19 

When  a  city  or  town  is  thus  established, 
its  subsequent  growth  still  depends  on  the 
ease  with  which  it  can  be  approached,  and 
the  extent  of  country  which  can  readily  find 
there  an  outlet  for  its  productions.  In  bar- 
barous ages,  the  protection  of  a  castle  and 
the  favor  of  a  chieftain  sometimes  congrega- 
ted men  in  hamlets  beneath  a  lordly  battle- 
ment, but  where  civilization  extends  her  ae- 
gis over  her  followers,  men  cannot  be  kept 
together  in  large  masses,  for  the  mere  and 
single  purpose  of  personal  safety.  They  re- 
sort to  populous  towns,  and  towns  become 
populous  because  they  are  the  marts  of  en- 
terprise. Here,  we  see  the  advantages  of  the 
subdivision  of  labor,  and  the  increased  pro- 
duction and  sale  of  those  articles  which  min- 
ister to  our  real  or  im  aginary  wants.  Here, 
industry  moves  on  the  largest  scale,  the  arts 
flourish  in  the  highest  degree,  and  the  com- 
forts of  life  are  most  easily  attainable.  In 
the  competition  of  intelligence  and  talent, 
great  designs  are  brought  forward  to  public 
observation,  great  public  benefits  are  secured, 
and  the  highest  rewards  held  out  to  perseve- 
rance and  industry.  Talent  generally  re- 
pairs to  the  largest  theatre  of  action ;  and 
the  eagerness  of  adventure,  and  the  rapid 


20  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

advancement  of  enterprise,  draw  crowds  of 
combatants  into  the  already  thronged  arena. 
When  cities  become  so  large  however,  as 
to  require  new  and  more  steady  supplies, 
than  at  their  outset, — whether  for  manufac- 
ture, export  or  subsistence,  then  it  is  the  ex- 
tension and  improvement  of  internal  commu- 
nications become  indispensible  to  further 
prosperity.  There  seems  to  be  a  reciprocal 
action.  Towns  require  the  construction  of 
roads,  and  roads  lead  to  the  increase  of 
towns.  They  are  the  artificial  substitutes 
for  water  communication,  and  by  bringing 
the  productions  of  the  surrounding  country 
to  market,  induce  competition,  and  give  the 
citizen  his  necessary  supplies,  at  cheaper 
rates,  and  in  more  convenient  quantities. 
'  The  surrounding  country  becomes  equally 
benefitted.  The  remote  sections  are  brought 
upon  an  equality  with  those  nearer,  by  the  re- 
duction of  the  expense  and  difficulty  of  land 
carriage,  and  thus  gain  a  market  they  could 
not  otherwise  profitably  visit.  Lands  that 
could  not  before  be  worked  with  any  prospect 
of  sufficient  remuneration,  become  valuable  to 
their  owners  and  beneficial  to  the  public.  The 
influence  that  large  towns  exercise  upon  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  is  well  understood »  / 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  21 

"In  those  districts,"  says  a  modern  writer, 
"  which  carry  on  a  communication  with  the 
markets  of  trading  towns,  the  husbandmen 
are  busy  and  skilful,  the  farmers  industri- 
ous, the  land  is  managed  to  the  best  advan- 
tage and  double  the  quantity  of  grain  or 
herbage  (articles  ultimately  converted  into 
human  provision)  raised  from  it,  of  what 
the  same  soil  yields  in  remoter  and  more  neg- 
lected parts  of  the  country."  "  Agriculture 
never  arrives  at  any  considerable,  much  less 
its  highest  degree  of  perfection,  when  not 
connected  with  trade,  that  is,  when  the  pro- 
duce is  not  increased  by  the  consumption  of 
trading  cities."  Nor  are  the  benefits  confer- 
red by  these  "  greatest  of  all  improvements" 
confined  exclusively  in  their  operation,  to 
town  and  country  only.  They  are  equally 
striking,  by  the  effect  they  produce  in  the 
relations  between  district  and  district.  Ar- 
ticles of  necessity  however  bulky,  are  easily 
transported  to  be  manufactured  or  consum- 
ed. The  products  of  the  soil,  of  the  rivers, 
and  the  mountains,  are  interchanged  at  will, 
and  the  gifts  of  heaven  which  would  oth- 
erwise often  be  unappreciated  and  unim- 
proved become  the  valuable  resources  of  the 
human  family. 


22  TREATISE   ON   ROADS. 

The  diminution  of  the  expense  of  trans- 
portation is  also  an  important  consideration, 
since  all  the  saving  effected  in  the  cost  of 
transportation  to  market,  is  so  much  profit 
left  in  the  pocket  of  the  producer. 

The  advantage  of  being  able  to  convey 
any  required  product,  to  the  place  where  it 
is  in  demand,  and  within  the  period  of  its 
greatest  value,  lessens  the  risk  of  produc- 
tion, and  gives  certainty  to  the  calculations 
of  industry.  In  the  conveyance  of  news  and 
of  private  correspondence,  the  utility  of  roads 
is  strikingly  evident,  and  particularly  that 
of  rail  ways,  a  simple  yet  admirable  inven- 
tion which  leaves  the  most  remarkable  ef- 
forts of  the  ancients  far  behind.  The  sepa- 
ration of  friends  and  relations  becomes  almost 
nominal,  the  sympathies  of  life  are  uninter- 
rupted by  distance,  and  all  the  joys  of  affec- 
tion and  the  sweets  of  remembrance  multi- 
ply in  the  pleasing  assurances,  which  their 
swift  messenger,  so  faithfully  conveys  to  the 
absent. 

In  a  military  point  of  view,  good  roads 
are  of  essential  service.  It  is  too  apparent 
to  need  any  proof,  that  the  rapid  transmis- 
sion of  troops  from  one  point  to  another  is  of 
the  highest  importance  to  any  belligerent 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  23 

country.  If  during  the  second  war  of  in- 
dependence, our  present  system  of  canals 
and  rail  roads  had  been  established,  im- 
mense savings  might  have  been  made  in  the 
expense  of  transportation;  and  the  same  num- 
ber of  men  might  have  been  used  oftener  at 
different  points  and  doubled  in  efficiency.  In 
any  future  contest,  the  advantages  will  be 
perceived  in  the  most  striking  manner. 

These  topics  at  which  we  have  only 
glanced,  are  fruitful  subjects  for  reflection, 
and  deserve  a  more  deliberate  examination 
than  our  limit  enables  us  to  give  them. 

The  early  history  of  roads  is  somewhat 
obscure.  In  tracing  it  out,  we  naturally 
turn  to  the  oldest  records  in  the  hands  of 
men,  to  see  what  is  there  said  of  them. 
The  commerce  of  the  east  appears  to  have 
been  carried  on  by  means  of  ships  and  ca- 
ravans, and  allusions  to  these  are  frequent 
in  the  early  writers.  We  find  that  the 
Egyptians  pursued  the  retreating  Israelites 
with  chariots,  which  is  perhaps  the  most 
ancient  notice  we  have  of  their  general  use. 
Among  the  Jews  the  absence  of  commercial 
regulations,  in  the  laws  promulgated  by  Mo- 
ses, was  doubtless  owing  to  the  necessity  of 
keeping  that  people  separate  as  much  as 


24  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

possible  from  the  idolatrous  nations  around 
them. 

In  the  time  of  Solomon  immense  numbers 
of  these  chariots  were  imported  from  Egypt. 
The  numbers  are  stated  with  precision  by 
the  early  historians,  and  the  fact  of  their 
use,  in  default  of  other  evidence,  would  be 
conclusive  as  to  the  existence  and  maintain- 
ance  of  public  roads.  Two  great  routes 
from  Palestine  to  Egypt,  the  one  along  the 
Mediterranean  from  Gaza  to  Pelusium,  and 
another  from  the  same  place  to  the  Arabi- 
an gulf,  are  spoken  of  as  being  constantly 
thronged  by  travellers. 

On  the  downfal  of  the  Israelites  after 
the  death  of  Solomon,  occasioned  by  various 
causes  foreign  and  domestic,  Tyre  became 
the  emporium  of  the  eastern  world.  Besides 
her  foreign  commerce  which  was  already  so 
extensive  as  to  have  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  inspired  prophets,  and  to  have  pro- 
cured for  her  the  title  of  "  a  merchant  of  the 
people  for  many  isles,"  her  internal  trade 
was  of  the  greatest  extent.  Her  principal 
connections  were  with  Egypt,  Assyria,  and 
the  Caucasian  countries,  while  the  tin  of 
Britain  and  the  silks  of  China  were  also 
found  in  her  marts.  When  the  walls  of 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  25 

Rome  were  so  diminutive  that  they  could  be 
easily  leaped  over,  Tyre  was  in  the  "  blaze 
of  her  fame."  While  her  vessels  whitened 
the  adjacent  seas,  her  caravans  threaded 
the  interior.  The  trade  of  Phenicia  has  gi- 
ven occasion  to  some  very  profound  research- 
es of  which  the  pages  of  Heeren  furnish  a 
masterly  example.  The  celebrated  city  of 
Petra,  recently  so  well  described  by  our 
countryman  Mr.  Stevens,  became  a  city  of 
immense  wealth,  from  the  mere  circumstance 
of  the  meeting  of  the  caravan  roads  in  its  vi- 
cinity, and  its  being  the  emporium  for  the 
supplies  of  Arabia. 

Babylonia  or  Chaldea,  a  province  of  As- 
syria, which  also  like  its  later  rival  Tyre 
has  yielded  to  time  and  prophecy,  was  also 
remarkable  for  its  commerce,  and  the  nume- 
rous commercial  roads,  by  which  the  city  of 
Babylon  gathered  in  the  products  of  sur- 
rounding countries.  One  celebrated  route 
ran  along  the  southern  boundary  of  the  de- 
sert between  Persia  and  Medea  to  the  Cas- 
pian Gates,  a  celebrated  Asiatic  defile  ;  and 
thence  along  the  Hyrcanian  and  Parthian 
mountains  to  Bactria.  It  is  said  to  have  been 
used  by  Alexander  in  his  celebrated  expedi- 
tion against  the  Bactrians,  and  is  styled  by 
4 


26  TREATISE   ON   ROADS. 

Arrian  a  Greek  geographer,  the  great  mili- 
tary road.  The  principal  commercial  route 
from  Babylon  to  India  was  in  part  the 
same,  but  at  Aria  it  took  an  easterly  di- 
rection and  afterwards  divided  into  three 
branches.  Other  roads  are  mentioned  which 
ran  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  to  important 
towns  in  Asia  Minor.  Serniramis,  who  if  not 
the  founder  of  Babylon,  was  the  creator  of 
its  commerce  and  its  splendor,  particularly 
directed  her  attention  to  the  construction  of 
roads  and  bridges,  which  according  to  Stra- 
bo  were  of  "  wonderful  structure." 

There  is  evidence  of  the  existence  of  re- 
gularly constructed  roads  in  Asia  of  great 
extent,  divided  into  stations,  at  which  the 
most  spacious  inns  were  erected  for  the  se- 
curity of  travellers.  That  from  Susa  a  sea 
port  of  Tunis  to  Sardis,  a  town  a  little  east 
of  Smyrna,  traversed  a  distance  of  312  miles, 
and  had  no  less  than  111  of  these  caravan- 
seras. 

Among  the  eastern  nations  celebrated  for 
their  internal  commerce,  was  Arabia,  situa- 
ted between  the  Red  sea,  the  Persian  gulf 
and  the  Mediterranean,  and  thus  peculiarly 
situated  to  enjoy  a  carrying  trade. 

The  principal  mode  adopted  by  the  Asia- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  27 

tic  and  African  merchants  for  the  transport- 
ation of  merchandize,  was  that  of  caravans, 
and  the  use  of  them  has  continued  to  this 
very  day.  Travellers  who  describe  them, 
present  us  a  picture  of  eastern  customs, 
which  carries  back  the  mind  to  the  earli- 
est periods  of  Eastern  history.  The  camel, 
that  ship  of  the  desert,  the  gift  of  heaven  to 
eastern  nations  alone,  still  forms  their  chief 
dependence  in  their  internal  trade.  Those 
who  wish  to  learn  the  details  of  caravan 
travelling,  will  find  them  fully  described  by 
Niebuhr,  and  Buckhardt. 

The  routes  now  followed  in  Africa,  are  no 
less  than  seven  in  number,  occupying  from 
30  to  119  days,  and  traversed  frequently  by 
as  many  as  2000  camels.  The  principal  ar- 
ticles of  traffic  are  Indian  goods,  slaves,  gold 
dust,  drugs  and  ivory.  The  principal  cara- 
van route  is  from  Nubia  to  Cairo.  Another 
is  that  from  Damascus  to  Mecca,  and  Cairo 
to  Mecca.  Into  the  great  caravans,  smaller 
ones  are  continually  merging  as  they  move 
along,  and  the  mixture  of  business  and  reli- 
gion allowed  by  the  Koran,  keeps  Asia  and 
Africa  dusty  with  the  feet  of  merchant  pil- 
grims. The  limits  necessarily  assigned  to 
this  treatise,  compel  us  to  turn  with  reluc- 
tance from  this  interesting  portion  of  the 
subject. 


28  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

The  states  of  Greece,  which  are  always 
the  favorite  haunts  of  the  classical  antiqua- 
rian, do  not  furnish  the  same  field  to  the 
utilitarian,  as  to  the  lover  of  the  fine  arts. 
Something  is  to  be  allowed  to  their  peculiar 
position,  when  it  is  known  that  their  trade 
was  chiefly  maritime,  and  their  roads  were 
of  secondary  consequence.  We  have  am- 
ple descriptions  of  their  temples,  their  fleets, 
their  public  men,  their  domestic  manners, 
and  their  foreign  wars,  but  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  ascertain  with  minuteness  the 
character  of  their  inland  communications. 
The  road  from  Athens  to  the  Pireus,  its 
artificial  sea  port,  and  the  sacred  road  to  El- 
eusis  are  often  alluded  to,  and  the  former  is 
particularly  described.  There  was  plenty  of 
material  for  the  construction  of  roads.  The 
quarries  still  remain,  out  of  which,  though 
towns  and  cities  were  for  ages  hewn,  as  ma- 
ny more  might  yet  be  constructed.  Contin- 
ental Greece  appears  to  have  been  a  collec- 
tion of  basins  of  level  land  surrounded  by 
lofty  and  romantic  mountains.  Each  basin 
shut  out  from  the  other,  seemed  naturally  to 
form  an  independent  territory,  and  commu- 
nicated only  by  the  natural  outlets  through 
the  mountains.  The  roads  ran  through  these 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  29 

defiles,  and  over  the  plains,  very  much  as  they 
now  do.  Indeed  from  their  present  character 
and  appearance,  we  are  led  to  infer  that  they 
were  generally  causeways  of  stone  rather 
roughly  laid,  with  a  narrow  surface. 

Tournefort  however  tells  us,  that  he  found 
in  the  island  of  Cos,  now  Stanco,  in  the  Ege- 
an  sea,  a  road  that  ran  from  lolis  to  Carthea, 
paved  with  regular  polygons,  supported  by 
a  strong  wall,  and  this  again  protected  by 
immense  blocks  of  coping.  He  succeeded  in 
tracing  it  for  three  miles.  The  roads  lead- 
ing from  Athens  to  the  country,  were  bor- 
dered with  statues  and  monumental  erec- 
tions in  honor  of  the  great  men  of  the  coun- 
try. There,  the  effigies  of  the  illustrious  met 
the  eye  of  the  traveller,  and  reminded  him, 
if  he  had  forgotten  it,  of  the  respect  due  to 
great  and  virtuous  actions. 

Pausanias  a  celebrated  traveller  of  Cappa- 
docia  who  nourished  in  the  second  century, 
and  left  behind  him  a  description  of  Greece 
made  from  personal  observation,  gives  us 
many  particulars  of  a  highly  interesting  na- 
ture. He  mentions  the  road  leading  from 
the  Academy  to  one  of  the  gates  of  the  city, 
as  being  lined  with  public  sepulchres.  Not 
the  least  of  those  thus  honored  with  monu- 


30  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

ments  at  the  public  charge,  was  Thrasybu- 
lus,  the  conqueror  of  the  thirty  tyrants,  who 
for  this  service  boldly  planned,  and  bravely 
executed,  refused  to  receive  any  other  re- 
ward, than  two  twigs  of  the  olive  entwined 
in  a  simple  wreath.  The  names  of  Pericles, 
of  Apollodorus,  Timotheus,  Zeno,  Nicias  and 
Aristogiton,  all  highly  interesting  and  dis- 
tinguished characters,  were  also  found  by  the 
traveller  inscribed  with  equal  care  in  the 
same  vicinity.  Among  other  roads  men- 
tioned by  him,  is  one  which  ran  from  the 
forum  in  Sparta  to  another  place  called 
Booneta,  celebrated  as  the  Aphetean  road,* 
so  named  after  a  port  of  Thessaly,  upon 
which,  Ulysses  ran  a  race  against  other 
competitors,  and  won  the  hand  of  the  far 
famed  and  faithful  Penelope. 

Perhaps  there  was  no  part  of  Greece 
where  a  good  road  would  have  been  more 
advantageous  to  the  country,  than  across 
the  isthmus  of  Corinth.  On  looking  at  the 
map  it  will  be  perceived,  that  such  a  road 
would  cut  off  a  tedious  navigation  round  the 
Morea,  uniting  the  gulfs  of  Lepanto  and 
Egina.  The  distance  across  is  only  four  or 
five  miles,  and  the  ancients  traversed  it  in 
preference  to  sailing  round.  Nero  it  is  said, 

•NOTE — Now  Fetio. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  31 

attempted  to  cut  a  canal  through  the  isth- 
mus, but  had  only  proceeded  with  the  work 
for  half  a  mile,  when  some  disturbances  at 
Rome  prevented  him  from  executing  his  de- 
sign. Some  fears  were  entertained  by  co- 
temporary  engineers,  if  such  they  might  be 
termed,  that  the  waters  of  the  Ionian  sea 
were  higher  than  those  of  the  Egean,  and 
would  overflow  the  islands  in  the  gulf  of  Egi- 
na,  as  well  as  the  low  land  of  the  isthmus. 
Corinth,  which  principally  benefitted  by  this 
inland  traffic,  became  possessed  of  immense 
wealth,  and  a  decided  influence  over  the 
other  Grecian  states.  When  the  Romans 
sacked  it,  146  years  before  the  Christian  era, 
they  were  astonished  at  the  vastness  of  their 
booty. 

As  these  warlike  people  extended  their 
conquests  to  that  part  of  the  world  already 
accustomed  to  the  sway  of  foreigners,  they 
carried  with  them  the  spirit  of  coloniza- 
tion. Greece  was  made  a  province,  and  was 
governed  by  a  pro  consul.  Roads,  as  will 
presently  be  noticed,  were  immediately  con- 
structed of  such  durability  as  to  have  lasted 
to  the  present  day.  That  from  Beirout  to 
Mount  Lebanon,  built  by  the  emperor  Aure- 
lius,  and  called  the  Vi  Antonina,  is  still  to  be 


32  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

traced,  and  the  inscriptions  commemorative 
of  the  event,  may  yet  be  seen  engraved  on 
the  mountain  heights  along  which  it  passes. 
Although  the  political  economy  of  the 
Grecian  states  is  but  imperfectly  known  in 
those  particulars  which  are  connected  with 
our  subject,  yet  occasionally  we  find  vesti- 
ges of  customs,  and  relics  of  history,  which 
enable  us  to  grope  our  way  with  some  de- 
gree of  certainty.  So  the  artist  pronounces 
from  the  foot,  that  it  is  Hercules  whose  sta- 
tue is  before  him,  and  the  geologist,  from 
the  scattered  fragments  of  the  fossil  fish 
determines  its  structure  and  habits,  when 
thousands  of  years  ago  it  swam  "  the  wa- 
ters like  a  thing  of  life."  The  care  of  the 
streets  and  highways  in  Thebes  must  have 
been  committed  to  persons  who  were  cho- 
sen for  that  purpose,  although  it  is  difficult 
to  tell  in  what  manner  they  exercised  their 
duties.  For  on  one  occasion,  its  ungrateful 
citizens  by  way  of  exhibitiug  their  contempt 
for  their  countryman  Epaminondas,  elected 
him  a  telearch,  or  cleaner  of  the  streets, 
one  of  the  lowest  of  their  public  offices. 
That  illustrious  person,  pronounced  by  Ci- 
cero one  of  the  greatest  men  of  any  age  or 
nation,  who  had  bled  at  Leuctra,  and  led  his 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  33 

countrymen  to  victory,  was  so  unfortunate 
as  to  be  unsuccessful  in  an  attack  upon  Co- 
rinth, and  thus  lose  their  favor.  He,  who  re- 
sisted the  rich  presents  of  a  Persian  monarch, 
though  he  lived  a  life  of  poverty  and  self  de- 
nial, had  not  so  secured  the  favor  of  the  fickle 
crowd,  as  to  escape  their  persecution  and 
denunciation.  Instead  of  complaining  of  the 
appointment  which  was  intended  to  cover 
him  with  contempt,  he  immediately  entered 
upon  its  duties.  In  his  opinion,  even  the  hum- 
blest office  claimed  a  faithful  execution,  and 
it  is  the  province  of  genius  to  touch  nothing 
that  it  does  not  adorn.  Epaminondas,  by  this 
rnanly  conduct,  not  only  won  the  repentant 
love  of  the  Thebans,  but  so  elevated  the 
character  of  the  despised  telearch,  that  the 
place  afterwards  was  eagerly  sought  for,  as 
a  mark  of  honor,  and  the  public  favor.* 

The  Roman  roads  are  almost  as  familiar 
to  the  moderns,  as  those  of  their  own  times. 
When  the  whole  world,  as  then  known,  was 
tributary  to  Rome,  and  her  Eagles  had  been 
planted  on  the  confines  of  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa,  she  took  care  to  construct  and  main- 


*Tbc  new  Greek  government  ha«  recently  employed  itself  in 
making  a  McAdamised  road  to  the  Pireus  which  is  well  spoken 
of. 

6 


34 


TREATISE    ON    ROADS. 


tain  roads  in  every  country  she  had  con- 
quered. In  the  time  of  Augustus,  the  lim- 
its of  the  empire  on  the  west,  were  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  on  the  east  the  Euphrates, 
on  the  north  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine, 
on  the  south  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile,  the 
African  desert  and  the  chain  of  Atlas.  In- 
deed, every  known  country  except  ancient 
Caledonia,  had  yielded  to  her  sway.  The 
brave  Highlanders,  they  could  not  subju- 
gate. Every  lake  was  a  Thrasymene,  ev- 
ery pass  a  Thermopylae. 

It  is  not  strange  that  with  this  boundless 
supremacy  of  the  empire,  the  most  lofty  pre- 
tensions were  made  by  her  citizens.  To 
maintain  that  supremacy,  roads  were  es- 
teemed essentially  necessary,  and  by  them 
was  kept  up  a  constant  communication  with 
the  remotest  outposts.  They  were  built  at 
a  vast  expense,  and  kept  up  with  unremit- 
ting care.  We  have  minute  details  of  the 
mode  of  their  construction.  Generally  they 
were  built  of  pebbles  and  gravel,  or  of  large 
and  unequally  sized  stones,  something  like 
our  flagging,  or  of  regular  strata  of  different 
materials.  Then  there  was  a  layer  of  bro- 
ken tile  or  earthern  ware  set  in  cement, 
then  a  bed  of  mortar,  then  an  upper  coat  of 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  35 

hard  material  often  consisting  of  large  irre- 
gular polygons.  These  were  so  neatly  joined 
together  as  to  seem  almost  like  one  stone.* 
The  width  of  these  roads  was  usually  about 
fourteen  feet.  They  were  elevated  above 
the  surface  of  the  adjacent  ground,  and  com- 
manded a  view  of  the  country.  On  each 
side  was  a  path  of  large  stones,  called  a  mar- 
gin, intended  for  foot  passengers,  and  edged 
with  curb  stones  which  kept  them  from  be- 
ing used  by  carriages.  The  line  of  direc- 
tion was  as  straight  as  possible,  rarely  devi- 
ating even  to  avoid  hills  or  marshes.  Thir- 
ty-one of  these  roads  more  important  than 
any  others,  terminated  in  the  city,  and  their 
point  of  union  in  the  forum  was  marked  by 
the  erection  of  a  gilt  pillar,  called  Millia- 
rum  Aureum,  and  placed  there  by  the  em- 
peror Augustus.  Singular  to  relate,  and  in 
strong  confirmation  of  the  Roman  historians, 
this  very  pillar  was  discovered  in  1823  in 


*Some  moderns  describe  with  greater  particularity  the  different 
kinds  of  roads  in  use  among  the  Romans.  Thus  the  stratas  vias 
were  only  pebbles  and  gravel. 

The  vias  silice  stratas,  paved  with  large  unequal  stones,  were  a 
kind  of  flagged  pavement,  and  the  great  military  roads  contained  the 
various  strata  of  material  already  mentioned.  The  following  tech- 
nical terms  are  also  given  by  the  road  builders  to  the  different  parts 
of  the  same  road  :  statumen,  or  foundation,  rudcratio,  the  tile,  nuc- 
leus the  mortar,  summa  crusta  the  surface. 


36  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

that  very  forum.  The  public  roads  were 
called  Consular  or  Pretorian,  because  con- 
structed under  the  direction  of  Consuls  and 
Pretors  at  the  public  expense.  The  private 
ways  were  styled  agrarian  or  vicinal.  The 
miles  were  marked  off  by  stones,  numbered 
from  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  in  consequence 
the  Latin  word  lapis,  a  stone,  became  syno- 
nymous with  mile. 

From  the  great  roads,  others  were  made 
leading  to  unimportant  places,  to  farms  and 
villas.  In  order  to  secure  the  comfort  of 
travellers,  seats  and  stepping  stones  were 
placed  at  short  intervals  along  the  route, 
while  taverns  called  caupones  diversoriae, 
and  post  houses  called  mansiones,  or  mu- 
tationes,  were  established  about  five  miles 
apart.  At  the  latter,  as  many  as  forty  hors- 
es were  kept  at  the  expense  of  the  govern- 
ment, for  the  transmission  of  intelligence,  or 
the  accommodation  of  those  travellers  who 
obtained  the  permission  of  the  proper  autho- 
rities, in  a  document  called  a  diploma.  In 
later  times,  two  wheeled  chariots  called  bi- 
gas,  were  maintained  on  the  roads  for  the 
same  purpose,  and  ancient  paintings  are  pre- 
served, in  which  the  mode  of  driving  them, 
and  the  positions  of  the  passengers  are  spirit- 
edly represented. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  37 

Such  was  the  system  prevailing  in  the 
management  of  these  highways,  that  it  was 
an  easy  matter  to  travel  upon  them  one  hun- 
dred miles  a  day.  So  late  as  the  time  of  The- 
odosius,  a  magistrate  of  high  rank  called  Ce- 
sarius  went  post  from  Antioch  to  Constanti- 
nople with  such  rapidity  that  it  was  made  a 
matter  of  public  record.  He  hegan  his  jour- 
ney at  evening,  and  reached  Cappadocia  165 
miles  distant  the  next  day.  He  arrived  at 
Constantinople  on  the  noon  of  the  sixth 
day,  having  in  that  time  travelled  665  miles. 
The  influence  of  a  government,  which  could 
thus  rapidly  issue  or  enforce  its  mandates, 
must  have  been  overwhelming. 

The  supervision  of  these  roads  was  en- 
trusted to  men  of  the  highest  rank.  Augus- 
tus made  those  about  the  capitol  his  parti- 
cular care,  and  pretors,  attended  by  lictors, 
superintended  the  paving  in  person.  Nor 
was  the  Emperor,  the  first  of  the  Csesars  who 
did  so,  for  the  great  Julius  acted  as  an  over- 
seer, and  in  that  capacity  as  the  colleague  of 
another  noble  Roman. 

The  classics  are  full  of  references  to  this 
subject.  Pliny  in  one  of  his  epistles  to  Pon- 
tius, speaks  of  the  high  satisfaction  which 
he  derived  from  the  appointment  of  his 


38  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

friend  to  the  surveyorship  of  the  Emilian 
way.  Statius  a  poet  of  the  time  of  Nero 
and  Domitian,  alludes  in  his  Sylvae  to  the 
similar  appointment  of  a  friend,  in  terms  of 
congratulation.  Among  those  of  his  poems 
which  have  come  down  to  us,  one  upon  the 
Domitian  way,  a  branch  of  the  Appian,  con- 
tains besides  a  large  portion  of  flattery  of  the 
emperor,  a  very  exact  account  of  the  process 
of  road  making,  and  a  glowing  eulogy  of  its 
advantages.  The  lines  in  the  commence- 
ment of  the  poem  describe  the  first  efforts 
of  the  laborers  in  a  very  animated  manner, 
and  allude  to  the  noise  they  necessarily  oc- 
casion. 

"  Q.ui3  duri  silicis  gravis  quc  ferri 
Immanus  sonus  equori  propinquam, 
Saxosae  latus  Appiae  replevit  ?" 

In  the  fiftieth  line  he  breaks  forth  thus : 

"  O  quantae  pariter  manus  laborant, 
Hi  cedunt  nemus,  exuuntque  monies 
Hi  ferro  scopulos  trabesque  levant, 
Illi  saxa  ligant  opusque  texunt, 
Cacto  pulvere  sordido  quo  topho." 

These  expressions  almost  exactly  describe 
the  modern  operation  of  grading  and  paving. 
Nor  is  it  singular  that  the  Roman  govern- 
ment was  so  successful  in  its  public  works, 
when  it  interested  its  citizens  directly  in 
their  construction,  by  paying  them  liberally 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  39 

for  the  labor  of  their  slaves,  besides  creating 
avenues  on  which  the  spoils  of  conquest 
were  to  be  returned,  for  division  among  the 
people. 

The  Appian  way,  so  celebrated  as  to  be 
styled  Regina  Viarum  Longarum,  was  cal- 
led after  the  name  of  its  constructor,  Appius 
Claudius  Coccus.  This  is  not  the  person 
whose  name  has  come  down  to  us  in  con- 
nection with  that  of  the  hapless  Virginia,  but 
a  noble  Roman,  who  won  the  confidence  of 
his  countrymen  by  his  patriotism  and  elo- 
quence, and  who  lives  in  the  verse  of  Ovid 
and  the  prose  of  Tully.  It  was  he,  who  in 
his  old  age  and  in  its  infirmity  of  health,  dis- 
suaded the  people  from  accepting  an  inglo- 
rious peace  with  Pyrrhus.  Yet  illustrious 
as  he  was,  for  the  qualities  which  they  most 
admired,  the  peaceful  honors  of  the  Appian 
way  have  outlasted  all  the  rest.  This  work 
is  the  reflector,  which  has  shed  the  light  of 
his  memory  and  example  through  the  long 
vista  of  years. 

The  road  was  constructed  several  hun- 
dred years  before  the  Christian  era,  if  we 
may  judge  from  corresponding  events,  and 
ran  from  the  Porta  Capena,  now  the  modern 
gate  of  St,  Sebastian,  to  Capua  a  distance  of 


40  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

about  130  miles,  then  the  limit  of  the  Roman 
territory.    It  was  afterwards  continued  as  far 
as  Brundusium;  and  to  Julius  Cajsar  this  ex- 
tension is  generally  attributed.      Its  whole 
length  was  about  342  miles.     It  was  paved 
with  the  hardest  flint,  and  the  whole  dis- 
tance was  marked  out  by  small  columns,  at 
a  mile's  distance  from  each  other,  called  ter- 
mini.      At  Sinuessa,  a   maritime   town  of 
Campania,  celebrated  for  its  thermal  springs 
and  mineral  waters,  it  branched  off  into  the 
Domitian  way,   and  led  to  Baise,  Neapolis 
and  Pompeii,  at  which  latter  place,  it  has 
been  brought  to  light  and  become  the  pro- 
perty of  modern  research.    The  Appian  way 
crossed  the  Pontine  marshes,  and  necessarily 
required  the  greatest  attention  and  frequent 
repairs.     In  the  year  before  Christ,  158,  it 
was  very  extensively  repaired.     A  stone  in 
the  tower  of  Triponti,  still  records  the  fact 
that  the  emperor  Trajan  expended  money 
for  a  similar  purpose ;  and  as  late  as  the  time 
of  Pius  VI.  the  road  was  kept  in  excellent 
condition  throughout   the  papal  territories. 
The  exhumation  of  Pompeii  and  Hercula- 
neum,  after  a  thousand  years  interment  be- 
neath the  the  lava  of  Vesuvius,  has  exposed 
to  modern  curiosity  a  perfect  picture  of  an- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  41 

cient  life  and  manners.  New  light  has  been 
thrown  upon  arts  long  since  forgotten,  and 
even  the  subject  now  under  discussion  has 
been  benefitted  by  the  discovery. 

Let  the  reader  says  a  modern  writer, 
who  has  furnished  us  with  the  most  graphic 
description  of  Pompeii,  suppose  himself 
passing  this  road,  then  as  he  approaches  the 
city,  both  sides  of  the  way  for  nearly  a  fur- 
long before  he  reaches  it,  are  occupied  by 
tombs  and  public  monuments,  according  to 
the  Roman  custom,  intermixed  with  shops  in 
front  of  which  were  arcades.  The  chariot 
way  is  narrow,  seldom  exceeding  ten  feet  in 
width,  except  within  the  gate  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  great  street  where  it  is 
upwards  of  twenty  feet  across.  The  foot- 
ways are  two  or  three  feet  wide,  and  eleva- 
ted from  eight  inches  to  a  foot  above  the 
road  having  a  curb  and  guard  stones.  The 
traveller  passing  through  the  street  of  tombs 
enters  the  city  by  the  gate  of  Herculaneum. 
Here  a  long  tortuous  street  presents  itself  to 
his  view,  having  on  either  side  broken  walls 
of  lava  stuccoed  and  decorated  with  arabes- 
ques and  paintings  mingled  with  the  pecu- 
liar letters  then  in  use.  The  streets  are 
paved  with  large  irregular  pieces  of  lava 


42  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

joined  neatly  together,  in  which  the  chariot 
wheels  have  worn  ruts  still  plainly  discerni- 
ble.    In  some  places  they  are  an  inch  and 
a  half  deep,  and  in  the  narrow  streets  follow 
one  track.       Where  the  streets  are  wider, 
the  ruts  are  numerous,  and  irregular.       In 
those  places  where  numerous  pieces  of  lava 
met  in  one  point,  and  in  process  of  time  a 
hole  was  made,  the  injury  was  repaired  with 
pieces  of  ,iron  which  still  remain  in  the  an- 
gles.     In  most  places  the  streets  were  so 
narrow  that  they  might  be  crossed  with  one 
stride,  where  they  were  wider,  a  raised  stone 
was  placed   in  the  centre  of  the  crossing 
place.     The  Flaminian  way  was  another  of 
these  famous  roads,  constructed  by  the  con- 
sul Flaminius  who  was  killed  at  the  battle 
of  Thrasymene.     It  extended  to  Arimenum 
a  city  of  Umbria,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arime- 
nus,  180  miles  from  Rome.     The  gate  of  mo- 
dern Rome  opening  upon  this  road  is  the 
Porta  del  Populo,  though  not  occupying  pre- 
cisely the  site  of  the  old  gate.    This  was  the 
great  route  along  the  Adriatic.     Where  it 
crossed  the  river  Nar  about  sixty  miles  from 
Rome,  there  was  a  bridge  with  an  arch  of 
150  feet  span,  and  100  rise,  which  was  pro- 
nounced by  Addison  the  stateliest  ruin  in 
Italy. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  43 

Besides  these,  the  other  principal  roads 
were  the  Aurelian  leading  along  the  Medi- 
terranean from  Rome  to  Nice.  The  Clau- 
dian  which  branched  from  the  Flaminian  at 
the  Pons  Mulvius,  now  the  Ponte  Molle,  ce- 
lebrated as  the  scene  of  the  death  of  the  ty- 
rant Maxentius.  Thence  it  reached  and 
united  with  the  Aurelian  at  Lucca.  The 
Emilian  led  from  Placentia  to  Ariminum, 
the  modern  Rimini.  The  Valerian,  pass- 
ed through  the  Sabine  territory  to  the  Ger- 
man -colony  of  the  Marsi,  who  for  a  long 
time  resisted  the  Roman  arms.  On  this 
was  situated  the  celebrated  villa  of  Maecen- 
as. The  Latinian  was  a  road  of  sixteen 
miles  in  length  leading  to  Mount  Albanus, 
where  those  singular  consular  sacrifices,  cal- 
led the  Feme  Latinse  took  place,  and  the 
triumphant  generals  sometimes  led  their  ar- 
mies in  solemn  procession.  The  Cassian 
way,  which  went  from  Rome  to  Florence, 
is  still  the  principal  route  across  the  Cam- 
pagna.  The  Salarian  was  another  avenue 
into  the  Sabine  country  by  means  of  which 
the  citizens  received  their  supplies  of  salt. 
Another  road  was  the  Ardetina,  a  branch  of 
the  Appian,  and  it  led  to  the  town  of  Ardea, 
near  the  coast;  another  the  Labicana,  and 


44  TREATISE    ON    ROADS. 

Prenestina,  which  ran  to  Preneste,  a  town  in 
Latium  twenty-one  miles  from  Rome,  cele- 
brated for  its  oracle  and  temple.  Another 
was  the  Nomentana,  leading  to  a  Sabine 
town  of  the  same  name,  whence  the  luxuri- 
ous derived  much  of  their  wine.  It  was  to 
the  Sacred  Mount,  visible  from  this  road, 
that  the  people  of  Rome  withdrew,  when 
they  revolted  against  the  Patricians,  and  from 
which  they  returned  when  admonished  by 
the  well  composed  fable  of  Menenius  Agrippa. 
Besides  these,  were  the  Tusculan  or  Cam- 
panian  way,  leading  out  of  the  modern  gate 
of  St.  John's  to  Tusculum,  and  the  Ostian 
which  connected  the  city  with  the  port  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  sixteen  miles  dis- 
tant. This  is  now  a  place  for  the  banish- 
ment of  criminals,  but  in  consequence  of  the 
changes  effected  by  the  river  and  the  sea,  it 
is  no  longer  a  maritime  place. 

All  these  roads  were  more  or  less  adorned 
with  tombs  and  monuments,  long  since  de- 
spoiled either  by  barbarian  conquerors,  or 
relentless  antiquarians.  The  description  al- 
ready given  of  the  street  of  Tombs  in  Pom- 
peii, is  supposed  to  be  generally  applicable 
to  all  the  principal  urban  roads  of  Italy.  The 
tombs  of  the  dead,  mingled  with  the  gay  re- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  45 

sidences  of  the  living.  Monuments,  porticos, 
seats  and  statues,  blended  life  and  death  so 
closely,  it  seemed  as  if  the  spirits  of  the  old 
Romans  after  the  termination  of  their  corpo- 
real existence,  returned  to  mingle  in  the  bu- 
sy throngs  they  had  left  behind. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  custom  of 
having  post  horses  on  the  great  roads,  and 
that  carriages  were  subsequently  introduced. 
These  were  after  the  Greek  model.  The 
Roman  ladies  were  much  accustomed  to 
sedan  chairs,  the  curtains  of  which  were 
of  skin  or  cloth,  and  the  windows  of  mica. 
They  reclined  on  pillows,  and  were  carried 
about  by  their  slaves.  There  were  also  lit- 
ters drawn  by  mules.  When  horses  were 
driven  before  chariots,  they  were  harnessed 
abreast  of  each  other,  and  Nero  who  vaunt- 
ed of  his  talents  as  a  fiddler,  boasted  also  of 
having  driven  ten  horses  side  by  side  at  the 
Olympic  games.  Sleds,  or  carriages  without 
wheels  were  generally  used  in  rustic  life. 

Sometimes  four  wheeled  carriages  were 
employed  to  carry  females  to  the  public  ex- 
hibitions, and  were  called  pilentse,  but  these 
were  not  in  ordinary  use.  Those  built  for 
speed  had  but  two  wheels,  and  were  called 
Citia, 


46  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

It  would  be  entirely  useless  to  extend  this 
portion  of  our  discussion.  Those  desirous 
of  studying  the  details  of  Roman  travelling, 
will  refer  to  those  classic  writers  familiar  to 
every  student.  Almost  all  modern  travel- 
lers in  Italy  give  some  account  of  the  an- 
cient roads,  and  volumes  might  yet  be,  as 
volumes  have  been  written  on  this  feature 
of  Roman  enterprise. 

The  grandeur  of  the  empire,  and  the  vast- 
ness  of  its  influence  have  furnished  themes 
for  the  ablest  historic  pens,  and  nothing  is 
more  certain  than  the  fact,  that  what  the  va- 
lor of  the  Romans  won  in  the  field,  their  sa- 
gacity retained  for  them  by  the  construction 
of  roads. 

Even  now  one  of  the  first  fruits  of  the 
French  conquest  in  Africa,  is  the  discovery 
of  a  Roman  military  road,  which  the  con- 
querors intend  to  turn  to  their  own  advan- 
tage, and  as  the  means  of  making  a  new  sea 
port  for  Constantina  instead  of  Bona,  which 
has  hitherto  been  used  as  such. 

The  translation  of  the  Roman  power  to 
the  banks  of  the  Bosphorus,  led  naturally 
to  the  abandonment  of  the  public  works  of 
which  we  have  treated.  Political  consider- 
ations involve  too  often  all  other  interests. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  47 

It  is  in  vain  that  industry  or  patriotism  ex- 
ert their  influence  against  misgovernment. 
Misgovernment  brings  all  to  ruin,  and  Impe- 
rial Rome,  drawing  her  supplies  from  a  sub- 
jugated world,  could  not  at  last  repair  the 
prodigal  waste  of  even  the  few  who  control- 
led her  destinies. 

The  contrast  between  her  days  of  magni- 
ficence and  her  decline  is  beautifully  painted 
by  a  modern  writer. 

The  sea  is  white  with  sails 
Innumerable,  wafting  to  the  shore 
Treasures  untold ;  the  vale,  the  promontories 
A  dream  of  glory.     Temples,  palaces 
Called  up  as  by  enchantment,   aqueducts 
Among  the  groves  and  glades  rolling  along, 
Rivers  on  many  an  arch  high  over  head; 
And  in  the  centre,  like  a  burning  sun, 
The  Imperial  City. 

Once  more  we  look,  and  all  is  still  as  night; 
All  desolate.     Groves,  temples,  palaces, 
Swept  from  the  sight,  and  nothing  visible 
Amid  the  sulphureous  vapors  that  exhale, 
As  from  a  land  accurst,  save  here  and  there 
An  empty  tomb,  a  fragment  like  the  limb 
Of  some  dismembered  giant.    In  the  midst 
A  city  stands,  her  domes  and  turrets  crowned 
With  many  a  cross  ;  but  they  that  issue  forth 


48  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

Wander  like  strangers  who  had  built  among 
The  mighty  ruins,  silent,  spiritless : 
And  on  the  road,  where  once  we  might  have  met 
Cassar  and  Cato,  and  men  more  than  kings, 
We  meet,  none  else,  the  pilgrim  and  the  beggar. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  49 

.,    '  ••'»!   $&$&&&  k&'^HfKfcMJ**^  • 

&i&ii^ptf&8»*B  siiT     ^*ja»rfli'  ftaoivwb 

CHAPTER    II. 


When  the  seat  of  empire  was  transferred 
from  the  Tiber  to  the  Bosphorus,  the  power 
and  resources  of  the  imperial  city  declined, 
and  her  roads,  bridges  and  aqueducts  went 
to  decay.  These  monuments  of  her  great- 
ness fell  beneath  the  hand  of  time  and  the 
ruthlessness  of  invasion ;  and  though  they 
had  indirectly  favored  the  propagation  of 
Christianity,  and  the  historians  of  the  church 
admit  the  facilities  of  communication  afford- 
ed by  them,  they  were  suffered  to  remain  un- 
repaired, and  the  distant  provinces,  and  the 
remote  population  that  had  felt  the  energies 
of  the  great  central  power,  were  now  left  to 
their  own  resources,  and  their  own  opinions. 

Darkness  gradually  overspread  the  world, 
and  for  a  time,  covered  with  its  gloomy  pall 
the  literature,  the  arts,  and  the  trophies  of 
former  ages\  The  human  intellect,  although 
visited  by  the  day-spring  from  on  high,  with- 
drew from  the  consideration  of  the  true  ob- 
jects and  responsibilities  of  life,  to  lose  itself 
in  dreamy  abstractions,  and  gave  up  the 


50  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

realities  of  existence  for  a  philosophy  of  sha- 
dowless  images.  The  natural  repugnance 
of  the  Christians  of  those  days  to  the  works 
of  heathen  art,  which  is  supposed  by  some  to 
have  hastened  their  decay,  was  not  a  little 
aided  by  a  decree  of  the  Council  of  Carthage, 
which  in  the  year  398,  prohibited  the  read- 
ing of  secular  books  by  the  clergy.  Physical 
science  could  not  prosper  in  such  a  state  of 
things,  and  a  "jargon  of  mystical  philoso- 
phy half  fanaticism  and  half  imposture,  a 
barren  and  inflated  philology,"  if  we  may 
credit  the  historians  of  that  day,  character- 
ized this  period.  After  the  introduction  of 
monkery,  says  Hallam,  and  its  unsocial  the- 
ory of  duties,  the  serious  and  reflecting  part 
of  mankind  on  whom  science  mostly  relies, 
was  turned  to  habits  which,  in  the  most 
favorable  view,  could  not  quicken  the  intel- 
lectual energies. 

The  final  settlement  of  barbarous  nations 
in  Gaul,  Spain  and  Italy,  consummated  the 
ruin  of  those  arts  by  which  Rome  had  be- 
come the  mistress  of  the  world. 

One  of  the  legacies  which  she  had  reft  to 
her  distant  provinces  was  her  roads.  The 
island  of  Britain  had  her  share,  and  their  po- 
sition is  well  known  to  antiquarians.  Indeed 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  51 

there  is  a  book  extant,  called  the  Iter  Brit- 
tanicum,  attributed  to  the  Emperor  Antino- 
us,  which  is  an  itinerary,  containing  the 
names  and  direction  of  the  roads  in  that 
island.  It  was  this  emperor  who  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  restorer  of  the  public 
works,  and  the  rebuilder  of  public  edifices ; 
and  who  declared  that  he  preferred  the  pre- 
servation of  one  citizen  to  the  death  of  a 
hundred  enemies.  These  British  roads  serv- 
ed principally  as  a  means  of  communication 
between  the  military  posts.  It  is  the  gene- 
rally received  opinion  among  the  antiqua- 
rians, that  the  southern  part  of  the  island 
was  crossed  in  various  places  by  four  great 
roads,  and  these  are  well  known  and  par- 
ticularly described,  as  the  Fosse,  Watling 
St.,  Ermine  St.,  and  the  Ikenild. 

The  Fosse  commenced  at  Totness,  in  De- 
vonshire, and  ran  to  Bristol,  Cirencester,  Co- 
ventry, Leicester,  Newark  and  Lincoln. 

Watling  St.  commenced  at  Dover  and 
proceeded  through  Kent  by  the  way  of  Can- 
terbury to  London ;  thence  northwardly  to 
Edgeware,  St.  Albans,  Dunstable,  Stony 
Stratford,  and  along  the  western  boundary 
of  Leicestershire  ;  it  crossed  the  Fosse  near 
Bosworth,  and  terminated  at  York  and  Ches- 


52  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

ter  le  Street  in  Durham.  Some  persons  ima- 
gine that  it  was  subsequently  continued  to 
Caithness  in  Scotland. 

The  Ermine  St.,  ran  from  St.  Davids, 
Wales,  to  Southampton,  crossing  the  Fosse  in 
its  way. 

The  Ikenild  is  supposed  to  have  com- 
menced on  the  eastern  coast  of  England, 
then  to  have  crossed  Watling  St.  at  Dunsta- 
ble,  and  to  have  proceeded  thence  north- 
wardly through  Staffordshire  to  the  west 
coast.* 

The  remains  of  old  Roman  roads  are  now 
frequently  discovered  in  England,  and  it  is  a 
singular  fact  and  worthy  of  notice,  that  Sir 
Christopher  Wren,  when  preparing  to  erect 
the  church  of  St.  Mary-le-bone,  found  one  of 
these  causeways  eighteen  feet  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  ground ;  and  so  exceedingly  firm 
was  its  texture,  and  so  firmly  cemented  its 
material,  that  he  actually  erected  the  tower 
of  the  church  upon  it,  as  the  best  foundation 
he  could  possibly  obtain. 

These  roads  were  constantly  traversed  by 
the  military,  who  had  their  stations  erected 

*  In  the  United  Service  Journal  for  January,  1 836,  is  an  account 
of  a  recent  surrey  of  a  Roman  road  from  Silchester,  made  by  some 
officers  of  the  Royal  Military  College. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  53 

at  proper  distances,  to  preserve  their  sup- 
plies. Some  of  these  points  became  marts 
of  trade,  and  it  is  conceded  by  the  early  his- 
torians of  England,  that  these  works  of  the 
Romans  materially  benefitted  their  country, 
and  gave  an  impetus  to  the  national  in- 
dustry. 

France,  then  Gaul,  was  also  traversed  in 
every  quarter  by  these  military  roads,  which 
are  fully  treated  of  in  the  French  Encyclo- 
pedia. One  of  them  crossed  the  mountains 
of  Auverne,  and  reached  Aquitaine ;  another 
followed  the  Meuse  to  the  German  ocean ;  an- 
other went  through  Burgundy,  Champagne, 
and  Picardy  to  Boulogne ;  another  extended 
along  the  Rhone  and  stopped  at  Marseilles. 
All  these  were  connected,  by  numerous 
branch  roads,  and  their  ruins  are  still  dis- 
cernible to  the  eye  of  the  traveller. 

The  departure  of  the  Romans  from  these 
countries,  was  the  signal  for  intestine  com- 
motions, and  bloody  invasions  by  foreign 
enemies  hitherto  held  in  check  by  the  terror 
of  the  Roman  name.  They  had  in  conse- 
quence neither  time  nor  ability  to  keep  up 
the  communications  which  had  for  several 
hundred  years  been  established  by  their  con- 
querors. It  would  be  a  tedious  task  to  fol- 


54  TREATISE   ON    ROADS. 

low  the  ancient  Britons  through  their  suc- 
ceeding history.  The  sway  of  their  Druid 
priests,  and  the  ignorance  in  which  they 
kept  the  people,  tended  as  much  to  the  down- 
fall of  the  nation,  as  the  hundred  years  of 
war,  which  ended  in  their  complete  subjuga- 
tion. It  is  not  strange  that  their  roads,  their 
walls  and  their  towns  almost  ceased  to  exist. 
Imagine,  for  a  moment  that  such  a  series  of 
misfortunes  as  these  were  the  lot  of  our  own 
country,  and  where  would  the  future  histo- 
rian find  the  monuments  of  our  greatness. 
If  one  disastrous  fire  effaces  a  large  portion 
of  the  most  valuable  quarter  of  a  city  within 
our  own  observation  and  in  our  brief  day, 
what  must  be  the  effect  of  a  century  of  blood- 
shed and  conflagration?  Britain,  says  the 
eloquent  Gibbon,  was  for  a  time  lost  among 
the  fabulous  islands  of  the  ocean. 

It  is  ascertained  with  considerable  cer- 
tainty, that  previous  to  the  conquest  by  the 
Romans,  the  natives  had  trackways,  called 
in  their  language,  post-ways  and  ridge-ways. 
They  were  neither  paved  nor  faced  with 
gravel,  but  were  covered  with  turf.  Narrow 
roads  were  called  passes,  and  in  order  to 
render  them  secure  to  travellers,  the  woods 
which  skirted  them  were  cut  down.  The 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  55 

Romans  are  said  to  have  adopted  some  of 
these  routes. 

A  discussion  has  prevailed  to  some  extent 
as  to  the  fact  whether  at  this  period  any 
other  mode  of  transportation  was  adopted, 
than  that  of  pack-horses ;  but  the  best  au- 
thorities are  strenuous  in  the  affirmative.  The 
internal  trade  of  the  country,  as  may  be  im- 
agined, was  very  trifling  for  many  hundred 
years,  although  local  regulations  were  made 
to  encourage  it,  such  as  the  establishment  of 
weekly  markets  and  mints  in  the  principal 
towns.  It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that 
the  most  important  part  of  the  trade  consist- 
ed in  the  sale  of  slaves  taken  in  their  domes- 
tic wars.  The  nearest  relatives  did  not  hesi- 
tate when  they  had  the  opportunity,  to  sell 
each  other  into  captivity,  and  slave  mer- 
chants visited  England  as  late  as  the  time  of 
the  Roman  conquest,  to  purchase  its  sons  and 
daughters  for  the  Spanish  and  African  mart, 
for  those  of  Italy,  and  still  nearer  home,  for 
those  also  of  Ireland. 

The  slave  trade  of  our  own  time  is  not 
more  cruel  in  its  character,  nor  is  it  conduct- 
ed with  greater  energy,  than  that  was  to 
which  we  refer.  William  of  Malmsbury 
says,  it  was  a  custom  which  seemed  to  be 


56 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 


natural  to  the  people,  and  the  biographer  of 
a  pious  prelate  of  that  time,  speaks  of  the 
horrors  and  iniquities  of  the  traffic  with  such 
warmth,  as  to  call  forth  the  indignation  of 
every  honest  breast.  The  sale  of  some  very 
fine  looking  young  men  in  the  city  of  Rome, 
gave  Gregory  the  Great  the  first  idea  of  send- 
ing missionaries  to  their  native  country. 

In  1285,  and  not  till  then,  did  the  subject 
of  roads  become  sufficiently  important  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  the  government,  when 
the  first  act  was  passed  in  relation  to  them. 

In  1346,  Edward  the  third  was  empowered 
to  levy  a  toll  on  carts  or  carriages  going  from 
St.  Giles  in  the  field  to  Temple  bar.  In  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII.  an  attempt  was  made 
to  procure  the  improvement  of  the  roads,  by 
compelling  the  parishes  through  which  they 
passed  to  keep  them  in  repair  by  rates  levied 
on  land-holders,  and  labor  enforced  on  others. 
An  essential  improvement  also  took  place  in 
the  reign  of  Philip  and  Mary,  when  the  an- 
nual appointment  of  road  surveyors  was  au- 
thorised to  be  made  by  the  inhabitants. 
Some  further  alterations  were  then  made  to 
the  existing  laws,  by  Mary  and  Elizabeth, 
and  in  the  time  of  James  I.,  and  Charles  I. 
and  II.  the  system  of  toll-gates  was  adopted 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  57 

in  consequence  of  the  increase  of  travel, 
which  injured  the  roads  without  furnishing 
the  necessary  means  of  repair.  The  first 
toll  was  exacted  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
II.  upon  persons  travelling  on  the  great 
northern  road.  This  for  a  time  proved  to 
be  an  unpopular  measure.  The  people  rose 
and  pulled  down  the  gates,  and  an  armed 
force  was  ordered  out  to  maintain  the  law. 
The  landholders  remonstrated  against  tolls, 
because  in  their  opinion  they  reduced  the 
value  of  their  property;  —  a  notion  which 
experience  soon  corrected.  But  though  the 
owners  of  the  soil  saw  their  error,  yet  as  late 
as  the  reign  of  George  II,.  it  was  necessary 
to  prevent  the  pulling  down  of  toll  bars  by 
declaring  it  to  be  a  felony.  A  multitude  of 
enactments  followed  from  time  to  time,  but  it 
was  not  till  after  1760  that  turnpikes  be- 
came general.  Between  that  year  and  1774 
452  turnpike  acts  were  passed,  and  between 
1785  and  1809  no  less  than  1062  more.  The 
details  of  the  system  by  which  they  are  ma- 
naged, are  fully  given  by  numerous  writers 
on  the  subject,  and  copious  extracts  are  giv- 
en in  the  latter  part  of  this  treatise.  Parnell, 
Dupin,  Edgeworth  and  McCulloch,  are  parti- 
8 


58  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

cularly  worthy  of  the  study  of  those  who 
would  thoroughly  understand  the  legislative 
history  of  roads  in  England.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  that  had  been  done,  down  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  last  century  they  were  almost  im- 
passable for  wheel  carriages.  As  these  have 
been  modified  from  the  original  forms  into 
their  present  elegant  and  convenient  shape, 
by  the  progress  of  refinement  and  the  im- 
provement of  the  public  roads,  a  glance 
at  their  progress  may  not  be  uninteresting. 
Some  authorities  contend,  that  for  many 
hundred  years  after  the  departure  of  the 
Romans,  nothing  but  pack  horses  were  used 
for  the  conveyance  of  goods,  and  that  wheel 
carriages  were  unknown.  This  is  not  so. 
A  particular  account  of  no  less  than  six  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  vehicles  is  preserved — The 
Benna,  Petoritum,  Currus,  Covinus,  Essed- 
um,  and  Rheda.  The  Benna  was  used  by 
travellers,  and  the  Currus  was  the  common 
waggon  of  the  country,  appropriated  to  ag- 
ricultural and  mercantile  purposes.  The 
others  were  chiefly  of  a  military  character. 
The  Essedum  is  mentioned  in  Caesar's  Com- 
mentaries, and  its  peculiar  form  was  adapt- 
ed to  the  mode  of  fighting  then  habitual  with 
the  Britons.  An  animated  description  of  an 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS,  59 

ancient  war  chariot  is  to  be  found  in  Ossian, 
in  which  he  styles  it  "  the  flame  of  death." 
Besides  the  usual  method  of  travelling  on 
horseback,  litters  were  also  in  vogue.  Sub- 
sequently the  queens  of  the  different  small 
kingdoms  into  which  England  was  for  a  time 
divided,  enjoyed  the  exclusive  privilege  of  the 
car  or  chariot,  and  one  of  them  is  said  to 
have  hung  up  in  a  bag,  with  her  most  es- 
teemed relics,  that  in  which  she  occasionally 
rode.  These  machines  must  have  been  ve- 
ry rude  of  construction  however,  when  the 
greatest  improvement  made  on  them  by  the 
Saxons  is  said  to  have  been  the  substitution 
of  a  hammock  swung  between  four  posts 
mounted  on  wheels  upon  which  the  passen- 
ger reclined.  In  some  of  the  earliest  spe- 
cimens of  English  poetry  we  find  mention 
made  of  the  chare,  or  charat  then  in  use. 
There  are  accounts  of  coaches  as  early  as 
1253,  and  it  is  recorded  that  in  1380,  when 
the  celebrated  Wat  Tyler  rose  against  the 
crown,  Richard  II.  fled  from  the  tower 
in  a  covered  carriage  called  a  whirlicote. 
Queen  Catharine,  one  of  the  unhappy  wives 
of  Henry  VIII.,  was  carried  to  the  corona- 
tion in  a  litter,  followed  by  her  ladies  in  co- 
vered chariots. 


60  TREATISE   ON  ROADS. 

The  general  introduction  of  coaches  into 
England  is  attributed  to  queen  Elizabeth, 
who  patronized  a  German  or  Hollander,  by 
the  name  of  Boonen,  a  coach  builder  from 
the  continent.  For  the  honor  of  the  inven- 
tion there  are  as  many  national  claims  pre- 
ferred as  there  were  for  the  birth  place  of 
Homer.  With  a  singular  sort  of  favor,  this 
princess  not  only  bought  his  coaches  but 
made  him  her  coachman,  and  the  appearance 
of  her  equipage  thus  driven,  was  thought 
worthy  of  being  preserved  by  an  engraving. 
It  was  first  used  by  her  when  she  went  to  St. 
Paul's  to  return  thanks  for  the  destruction 
of  the  Armada.  From  the  extreme  of  scarci- 
ty, these  vehicles  became  so  numerous  as  to 
become  nuisances.  In  1636,  no  less  than 
6000  of  them,  it  is  said,  jolted  about  the 
streets  of  London.  The  satirists  of  the  time 
inveighed  loudly  against  them,  and  Taylor, 
the  water  poet,  in  particular,  complained  of 
the  withdrawal  of  so  many  persons  from 
their  former  employment  to  become  through 
the  witchcraft  of  the  coach,  "  butterfly  pa- 
ges, trolling  footmen,  and  hard  drinking 
coachmen."  Although  it  was  for  a  long 
time  considered  effeminate  in  men  to  ride 
about  in  coaches,  yet  it  seems  to  have  been 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  61 

a  matter  of  some  importance  in  the  then  fa- 
shionable world,  to  see  who  could  drive  the 
greatest  number  of  horses  before  them.  It 
is  gravely  chronicled  that  in  1619  when  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham  had  driven  six  horses 
in  hand,  he  was  outdone  by  a  nobleman  who 
proceeded  through  the  streets  of  London 
with  eight.  The  surprise  of  the  citizens  at 
this  feat  of  daring,  added  to  his  celebrity,  al- 
though it  was  already  that  of  "  the  Percy's 
high  born  race." 

Down  to  the  time  of  James  I.  the  judges 
rode  to  court  on  horseback,  and  the  Lord 
Mayor  who  now  rejoices  in  his  coach  and 
barge,  was  also  obliged  to  play  the  eques- 
trian, but  with  a  vaulting  ambition  that  of- 
ten over  leaped  itself  and  fell  on  the  other 
side. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  who  drew  many  of  his 
most  pleasing  descriptions  from  facts  which 
lay  in  tradition,  or  lived  chiefly  in  domestic 
history,  has  given  an  account  of  a  coach 
in  the  time  of  Charles  II.,  which  is  to  be 
found  in  his  admirable  novel  of  "  Old  Mor- 
tality." 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  county,  says 
he,  a  personage  of  ducal  rank,  alone  pre- 
tended to  the  magnificence  of  a  wheel  car- 


62  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

riage,  others  covered  with  tarnished  gilding 
and  sculpture,  in  shape  like  the  vulgar  picture 
of  Noah's  ark,  drawn  by  eight  long  tailed 
Flanders  mares,  carrying  eight  insides  and 
six  outsides.  The  insides  were  their  graces 
in  person,  two  maids  of  honor,  two  children, 
a  chaplain  stuffed  into  a  sort  of  lateral  re- 
cess, formed  by  a  projection  at  the  door  of 
the  vehicle,  and  called  from  its  appearance 
the  boot,  and  an  equerry  to  his  grace  en- 
sconced in  a  corresponding  contrivance  on 
the  opposite  side.  A  coachman  and  three 
postillions  who  wore  short  swords,  and  tie 
wigs  with  three  tails,  having  blunderbusses 
slung  behind  them  and  pistols  at  the  saddle 
bow,  conducted  the  equipage.  On  the  foot 
board  behind  this  moving  mansion  house, 
stood  or  rather  hung  in  triple  pile,  six  lac- 
quies  in  rich  liveries  armed  up  to  the  teeth." 

As  further  illustrations  of  the  manners  of  a 
nation  whose  progressive  importance  has  been 
so  dependent  on  roads,  the  various  vehicles 
used  on  state  occasions  would  furnish  an  amu- 
sing picture.  Were  we  to  pursue  all  the  by- 
paths which  lead  from  our  main  subject,  it 
would  be  impracticable  to  confine  ourselves 
within  the  limits  to  which  we  are  prescribed. 

It  seems  that  coaches  were  only  first  let 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  63 

to  hire  as  late  as  1625,  and  that  the  practice 
originated  with  an  old  naval  captain  of  the 
name  of  Baily ;  and  the  next  year  a  follower 
of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  obtained  from 
Charles  II.  the  privilege  of  keeping  Sedan 
chairs.  A  valuable  chapter  of  statistics 
might  be  furnished  on  this  topic  as  well  as 
the  preceding.  Connected  with  the  improve- 
ment of  the  roads  was  that  of  stage  coaches, 
which  as  a  public  benefit,  have  from  time  to 
time  attracted  the  public  attention.  Their 
speed  gradually  increased  as  the  roads  be- 
came better.  For  example,  the  first  that 
ran  between  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  in 
the  year  1678,  a  distance  of  forty-four  miles 
occupied  six  days  in  going  and  returning: 
now  the  journey  is  performed  in  four  hours. 
In  1706  the  stage  coaches  went  from  Lon- 
don to  York  in  four  days,  and  now  they  per- 
form the  distance  in  twenty-four  hours.  In 
1712  it  took  thirteen  days  to  travel  by  coach 
from  London  to  Edinburgh,  and  now  it  re- 
quires but  forty  hours !  In  1760  travellers 
were  two  whole  days  in  going  from  London 
to  Brighton,  now  they  are  only  about  five 
hours.  One  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  mo- 
dern times  is  that  of  rapid  and  safe  travel- 
ing. The  difficulties  formerly  attending  it 


64  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

are  alluded  to  constantly  by  the  writers  of 
those  days.  Leaving  out  of  the  account,  the 
dangers  which  arose  from  the  frequency  of 
thefts,  murder  and  highway  robbery,  which 
according  to  Hallam,  became  almost  the  na- 
tional crime  of  England  during  the  middle 
ages,  we  find  that  the  bad  condition  of  the 
roads  had  a  serious  effect  on  the  national 
prosperity,  and  on  individual  comfort.  Hav- 
ing illustrated  by  a  quotation  from  Scott, 
the  character  of  a  coach  in  the  time  of  one 
of  the  Stuarts,  it  may  be  well  to  introduce 
the  description  of  a  journey  made  by  some 
illustrious  personages,  as  late  as  the  time  of 
queen  Anne.  When  a  royal  visiter  from 
Spain  attempted  to  pay  a  visit  to  Prince 
George  of  Denmark  her  husband,  he  found 
its  accomplishment  almost  impossible.  "  We 
set  out,  says  the  narrator  of  the  expedition, 
at  six:  in  the  morning  by  torch-light,  to  go 
to  Petworth,  and  did  not  get  out  of  the 
coaches,  only,  when  we  were  overturned  or 
stuck  fast  in  the  mire!  His  highness's  body 
coach  would  have  suffered  very  much  if  the 
nimble  boors  of  Sussex  had  not  frequently 
poised  or  supported  it  with  their  shoulders, 
from  Godalming  almost  to  Petworth.  The 
last  nine  miles  of  the  way  cost  us  six  hours 
to  conquer  them,  and  indeed  we  had  never 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  65 

done  it,  if  the  king  had  not  several  times 
lent  us  a  pair  of  his  horses  out  of  his  own 
coach." 

It  seems  this  Petworth  road  was  no  bet- 
ter a  long  time  afterwards,  for  when  a  Duke 
of  Somerset  proposed  to  travel  upon  it  at  a 
certain  day,  a  letter  was  sent  in  advance 
directing  the  keepers  and  persons  who  knew 
the  holes  and  sloughs  "to  come  to  meet  him 
with  lanterns  and  long  poles  to  keep  him 
on  his  way."  The  Sussex  roads  then  bad 
to  a  proverb,  are  now  famous  for  their  ex- 
cellence. 

In  1739  two  persons  undertook  a  journey 
from  Glasgow  to  London  on  horseback,  and 
they  found  nothing  but  narrow  causeways 
until  they  came  within  110  miles  of  the 
metropolis. 

They  encountered  strings  of  pack  horses 
thirty  and  forty  at  a  time,  carrying  goods, 
the  leader  of  the  train  being  equipped  with 
a  bell  to  warn  travellers  coming  in  an  oppo- 
site direction  and  these  were  generally  ob- 
liged to  draw  on  one  side  into  the  ditches  so 
that  the  train  could  pass. 

We  have  noticed  the  various  characters 
of  the  roads  and  of  the  vehicles  used  upon 
9 


66  TREATISE    ON   ROADS. 

them,  at  different  periods  of  time.  The  ac- 
commodations furnished  by  the  way  side  re- 
quire a  passing  notice.  Industrious  anti- 
quarians have  not  failed  to  trace  out  all 
their  peculiarities.  At  first,  private  dwel- 
lings were  used  for  lodging  places  and  hous- 
es of  refreshment.  Religious  establishments 
were  also  compelled  to  entertain  travellers 
if  their  hospitality  was  demanded.  In  the 
first  part  of  Shakspeare's  play  of  Henry  IV. 
the  first  scene  of  the  second  act  is  laid  in  an 
inn-yard  at  Rochester,  where  in  the  brief 
dialogue  between  two  carriers,  many  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  inland  traffic  of  the 
time  are  given  with  graphic  skill.  In  the 
opening  chapter  of  Kenilworth,  the  modern 
Shakspeare,  has  given  an  equally  vivid  de- 
scription of  the  host,  the  fare  and  the  guests 
which  were  to  be  found  in  the  time  of  Eli- 
zabeth congregated  under  the  roof  of  such 
as  Silas  Gosling  of  the  Bonny  Black  Bear. 

From  the  specimens  thus  far  given  of  the 
roads  with  their  concomitants  in  England 
during  the  middle  ages,  we  may  judge  very 
accurately  of  the  state  of  them  on  the  con- 
tinent. Ex  uno  disce  omnes.  From  the  past 
we  now  turn  to  the  present  time.  Let  us 
now  examine  their  present  condition  through- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  67 

out  Europe,  before  we  pass  to  the  important 
considerations  connected  with  recent  dis- 
coveries in  the  form  and  management  of 
roads.  The  roads  of  England  and  Wales 
are  now  computed  to  be  upwards  of  24,000 
miles  in  length  so  far  as  they  are  turnpiked. 
And  the  extent  of  the  common  and  private 
roads  in  the  United  Kingdom  is  estimated  at 
100,000  miles.  The  public  roads  are  of  the 
finest  description,  being  constructed  on  sci- 
entific principles,  and  designed  by  eminent 
engineers  The  plan  of  construction,  so  far 
as  material  is  concerned,  is  generally  that 
of  Mr.  Me  Adam,  although  the  notions  of  Mr. 
Telford  as  to  the  necessity  of  having  a  non 
elastic  foundation  seem  now  to  prevail  among 
the  English  engineers. 

Great  care  is  taken  to  leave  a  perfect 
drainage  by  means  of  deep  ditches  commu- 
nicating with  the  streams  and  natural  out- 
lets of  the  country.  These  it  is  held,  should 
be  sunk  at  least  three  feet  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  road,  and  wherever  the  water  is 
likely  to  lie  on'1  the  surface  from  the  nature 
of  the  slopes,  or  route,  cross  chains  are  al- 
ways provided. 

The  cuttings  through  hills  are  carefully 
made  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 


68  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

the  banks  in  their  places,  but  to  allow  the 
wind  and  sun  to  have  the  greatest  effect 
and  therefore  a  slope  of  two  feet  horizon- 
tal to  one  perpendicular  is  strongly  recom- 
mended. 

It  is  also  usual  to  protect  these  slopes  by 
covering  them  with  sods.  No  improvement 
says  a  writer  on  this  subject,  will  be  found 
greater  than  keeping  the  surfaces  of  the 
roads  above  the  level  of  the  adjacent  land. 
A  convex  surface  seems  to  be  the  most  in 
use,  though  there  are  strong  objections  to 
it,  and  the  idea  does  not  generally  prevail. 
The  materials  for  a  good  road  are  various. 
Greenstone,  granite,  sandstone,  and  lime- 
stone are  all  adopted  according  to  circum- 
stances. A  mass  of  valuable  information  on 
this  head,  has  from  time  to  time  been  elicit- 
ed in  the  examinations  made  by  committees 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  of  competent  en- 
gineers, and  by  the  various  experiments  un- 
dertaken to  ascertain  the  best  arrangement 
of  the  material.  A  dry  foundation  and  lay- 
ers of  clean  hard  broken  stone  appear  to  be 
the  chief  object  of  the  English  road  makers. 
They  state  that  all  those  imperfectly  formed 
with  pebbles  or  gravel,  on  a  loose  founda- 
tion, soon  wear  out,  for  the  reason  that  they 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  69 

expand  readily  with  heat,  and  throw  up  the 
stones,  or  else  absorb  moisture,  and  loosen 
them.  In  short  that  the  consequent  wear 
and  tear  of  the  material  lead  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  road  and  a  constant  outlay  to  keep 
them  in  proper  order.  All  kinds  of  pave- 
ments have  also  been  proposed  in  reference 
to  this  subject.  Patent  after  patent  has 
been  taken  out  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
some  supposed  advantage. 

As  one  of  the  natural  consequences  of  the 
formation  of  roads,  pavements  became  ne- 
cessary, particularly  in  cities,  where  the  con- 
venience of  a  dense  population  requires  that 
the  public  avenues  should  be  kept  in  a  pas- 
sable condition,  and  also  on  those  routes 
where  the  transportation  of  goods  with  the 
least  practicable  difficulty  became  a  matter 
of  importance  to  purchasers  and  consumers. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  however,  as  has  al- 
ready been  incidentally  seen,  that  the  high- 
ways of  the  ancients  were  much  oftener 
paved  than  the  streets  of  their  cities. 

According  to  Isidorus,  Carthage  was  the" 
first  town  in  which  pavements  were  intro- 
duced, and  her  example  was  followed  by 
her  subsequent  rival  Rome.    The  exact  time 
at  which  the  latter  adopted  this  improventis 


70  TREATISE  ON  ROAD3. 

still  in  doubt,  and  it  has  been  a  grave  mat- 
ter of  inquiry  not  fully  decided  by  the  anti- 
quarian critics.  A  passage  in  Livy  is  as  yet 
uninterpreted  in  relation  to  this  subject,  al- 
though that  historian  speaks  explicitly  in 
other  places  of  the  pavement  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  ox  market,  the  Temple  of  Venus,  and 
the  Temple  of  Mars. 

The  city  of  Jerusalem  has  been  supposed 
to  have  been  paved  from  some  circumstan- 
ces in  its  history,  and  from  a  proposition 
mentioned  by  Josephus,  as  having  been 
made  by  the  Jews  to  Agrippa,  which  was 
to  employ  the  workmen  for  that  object,  af- 
ter they  had  completed  the  rebuilding  of  the 
temple. 

All  writers  agree  that  of  the  modern  cities 
Cordova  in  Spain,  was  the  first  which  was 
paved,  and  that  it  was  so  improved  in  the 
year  850  by  the  Caliph  Abdorrahman.  One 
of  the  proofs  that  this  prince  wTas  an  enlight- 
ened man,  is  the  fact  that  he  favored  trade, 
improved  its  avenues,  and  supplied  his  capi- 
tal with  water  in  leaden  pipes. 

The  city  of  Paris  was  not  paved  even  in 
part  until  the  twelfth  century,  and  as  late 
as  1614  many  principal  streets  were  still  in 
their  original  state.  Even  now  they  are  not 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  71 

in  as  perfect  condition  as  the  refinement  of 
the  age,  and  the  comfort  of  pedestrians  re- 
quire. Other  large  French  towns  followed 
the  example  of  the  metropolis,  and  it  is  as- 
serted by  historians  of  that  country,  that  af- 
ter the  system  of  pavements  became  general 
many  dangerous  maladies  almost  entirely 
disappeared.  London  was  not  paved  until 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  then 
only  in  part.  As  the  wealth  of  the  city  in- 
creased, these  improvements  were  extended, 
and  favored  by  different  monarchs.  Berlin 
was  first  paved  in  1679,  and  other  continen- 
tal towns  progressively  adopted  the  system. 
The  regulations  of  the  police  which  followed 
its  adoption  in  different  countries,  though  in 
many  respects  curious,  are  not  sufficiently 
important  to  justify  their  introduction  into 
this  treatise. 

To  practical  readers  it  may  however,  be 
interesting  to  glance  at  the  different  kinds 
of  pavements  now  in  use.  Some  of  the  ci- 
ties of  Italy  afford  fine  examples  of  the  art. 
The  tracks  for  wheel  carriages  are  composed 
of  large  blocks  of  limestone  or  sandstone, 
some  of  them  at  Florence  weigh  several 
tons.  The  streets  of  Naples  are  laid  with 
immense  rectangular  pieces  of  basalt  at 


72  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

least  six  inches  thick,  laid  in  cement,  forming 
a  solid  and  smooth  surface.  Those  of  mo- 
dern Rome  are  also  paved  with  basaltic 
cubes  set  in  mortar,  each  furnishing  a  sur- 
face of  ten  inches  square. 

In  Russia,  blocks  of  wood  have  been  used, 
and  successfully  for  the  same  object,  and  a 
similar  experiment  has  been  made  in  the 
city  of  New-York  which  thus  far  has  been 
satisfactory. 

There  are  no  less  than  twenty-one  kinds 
of  paving  used  in  England,  well  known 
to  scientific  road  makers  in  that  country.* 
One  of  the  most  celebrated  is  the  Leith  walk 
of  Edinburgh  formed  of  ashler. 

In  street  paving  at  the  present  day,  the 
following  rules  are  adopted  as  being  the  re- 
sult of  study  and  experience. 

All  small  based,  or  wedged  shaped  stones 
must  be  rejected,  and  all  clayey  particles  in 
the  stratum  on  which  the  stones  are  to  be 
bedded,  should  be  removed.  The  bed  of  the 
road  should  be  well  hardened  by  ramming 
and  treading.  An  uniform  elevation  of  the 
paving  stones  should  be  carefully  studied, 
and  also  as  great  an  uniformity  in  size. 
Single  corners  of  broad  or  large  stone  should 

•'*  See  Appendix. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  78 

never  be  laid  across  a  street,  as  they  form 
a  belt  which  does  great  injury  to  carriages 
when  passing  over  it.  On  the  same  princi- 
ple, any  courses  of  small  stones  laid  in  the 
same  way,  sink  down  and  form  a  trench 
equally  destructive.  The  pavement  when 
laid  down,  should  also  be  well  rammed  down. 
The  object  is  smoothness,  stability  and  im- 
perviousness  to  water,  and  as  these  are 
gained,  the  excellence  of  the  pavement  is 
established. 

One  of  the  most  recent  improvements,  if 
such  it  may  yet  be  considered,  is  the  in- 
troduction of  a  composition  of  asphaltum, 
which  is  poured  hot  from  a  cauldron  upon 
the  stratum  of  earth,  previously  prepared 
for  it,  and  becomes  hard  and  impermeable. 
Enough  is  not  yet  known  of  its  durability 
to  justify  any  opinion  as  to  the  probability 
of  its  coming  into  general  use. 

Besides  the  various  processes  recommend- 
ed for  the  formation  of  roads,  there  are 
many  for  keeping  them  clean  and  in  repair, 
and  while  the  loss  of  material  from  wear  and 
tear  is  obvious  to  the  eye,  calculations  have 
been  made  with  great  accuracy,  to  ascertain 
what  loss  is  sustained  by  carriages  used 
10 


74  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

upon  them  and  what  is  the  comparative 
ease  of  draught  upon  various  kinds  of  roads. 

The  draught  of  a  waggon  weighing  21 
cwt.  on  a  well  made  pavement  as  indicated 
in  a  newly  invented  dynamometer  of  Mr. 
McNeil,  is  331bs.  or  in'  other  words,  the 
force  used  to  draw  the  waggon  over  that 
portion  of  road  is  331bs;  over  a  broken 
stone  surface  of  flint,  651bs ;  over  a  gravel 
road,  1471bs. ;  over  a  broken  stone  road  on 
a  rough  pavement  foundation,  461bs. ;  over 
a  broken  stone  surface  upon  a  bottom  of 
concrete,  461bs. 

The  English  turnpike  roads  are  under 
the  care  of  trustees  appointed  by  act  of 
parliament,  who  are  authorized  to  borrow 
money  for  their  construction  or  repair,  on  a 
mortgage  security  of  the  tolls.  These  tolls 
are  sometimes  put  up  to  be  sold  by  auction, 
and  some  of  the  single  gates  about  London 
have  brought  under  the  hammer,  as  large  a 
sum  as  $15,000  a  year.  In  1829  the  turn- 
pike debt  was  over  27  millions  of  dollars. 
The  annual  expenditure  for  repairs  was 
above  7  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars.  The 
income  was  about  6  millions  of  dollars.  The 
chief  objection  to  the  trustee  system  of 
supervision,  is  that  the  trustees  are  often  too 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  75 

numerous  and  do  not  always  act  in  concert. 
These  appoint  surveyors  who  manage  the 
details.  The  common  roads  are  still  work- 
ed by  the  inhabitants  of  the  parish,  who 
appoint  their  surveyors,  as  in  early  times. 
The  best  road  in  England  is  said  to  be  that 
from  London  to  Holyhead,  although  crossing 
the  most  rough  and  mountainous  places  in 
Wales,  and  it  has  been  made  the  special 
subject  of  parliamentary  inquiry.  In  the 
constant  reports  and  examinations  annually 
made  in  the  British  Commons  on  the  inter- 
nal improvements  of  the  empire,  the  most 
interesting  facts  are  continually  developed. 
The  effect  of  the  construction  of  new  roads 
has  thus  been  found  to  be  beneficial  beyond 
all  expectation.  The  face  of  the  country 
in  certain  districts  of  Ireland  has  been  com- 
pletely changed  within  a  few  years,  by  si- 
milar improvements.  New  villages  have 
sprung  up,  and  the  inhabitants  have  found 
out  that  industry  and  enterprize  are  prefer- 
able to  discomfort  and  idleness. 

Mr.  Telford  on  a  similar  occasion  bore 
witness  to  similar  changes  effected  in  Scot- 
land. "I  consider"  said  he,  "these  improve- 
ments some  of  the  greatest  blessings  ever 
conferred  on  any  country.  £200,000  ex- 


76  TREATISE    ON   ROADS. 

pended  in  fifteen  years  has  changed  the  mor- 
al habits  of  the  great  working  class  for  the 
better,  and  has  advanced  the  country  at  least 
one  hundred  years." 

At  the  risk  of  trespassing  upon  the  pa- 
tience of  our  readers  we  cannot  omit  this 
opportunity  of  paying  a  humble  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  Mr.  Telford. 

This  extraordinary  man  was  an  example  of 
the  triumph  of  genius  over  the  usual  difficul- 
ties of  life.  It  is  somewhat  singular,  that 
the  most  eminent  practical  engineers  have 
been  those  who  were  destitute  of  what  is 
termed  a  classical  education.  Like  Brindley, 
he  was  destitute  of  collegiate  honors.  The 
son  of  a  humble  mechanic  of  Dumfries  in 
Scotland,  he  commenced  his  career  in  the 
work  shop  of  a  stone  mason,  and  during  the 
leisure  he  could  snatch  from  the  hours  of 
repose,  he  might  have  been  seen  sitting  in 
the  kitchen  of  a  humble  cottage,  reading  his 
favorite  books  by  the  glimmering  light  of  a 
turf  fire.  At  this  time  his  skill  as  a  work- 
man, and  his  taste  for  poetry  were  remarked 
by  his  acquaintances,  and  as  soon  as  his 
apprenticeship  expired,  he  repaired  to  Edin- 
burgh, to  prosecute  with  unremitting  dili- 
gence, the  science  of  architecture.  In  1782, 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  77 

at  which  time  he  was  25  years  of  age,  he 
went  to  London  under  the  patronage  of  Sir 
William  Pulteney,  a  native  of  his  own  par- 
ish, and  a  personage  whose  name  is  well 
known  in  this  state. 

His  talents  there  found  a  field  worthy  of 
their  exertion,  and  after  superintending  some 
public  works,  highly  to  the  satisfaction  of 
his  employers,  the  government,  he  received 
a  valuable  appointment  as  a  mark  of  its 
favor,  which  he  retained  to  the  time  of  his 
death, 

From  this  time  his  fame  was  established. 
He  was  consulted  by  the  engineers  of  other 
nations,  and  astonished  his  own  country- 
men by  the  vastness  of  his  designs,  and  the 
perfect  accuracy  of  their  execution.  His 
most  admired  works  are  the  road  from 
London  to  Holyhead,  and  its  celebrated 
bridge  over  the  straits  of  Menai,  connect- 
ing the  island  of  Anglesea  with  the  Welch 
coast.  This  was  erected  on  the  principle  of 
suspension,  and  exceeded  in  magnitude  any 
similar  work  in  the  known  world.  Under 
it  passed  without  inconvenience  the  "masts 
of  the  tallest  frigates."  When  we  consider 
the  immense  weight  of  iron,  more  than  2000 
tons  which  had  to  be  suspended  in  order  to 


78  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

sustain  the  roadway,  and  the  frightful  ele- 
vation at  which  the  work  was  executed, 
we  may  well  believe  what  the  projector 
often  declared,  that  it  cost  him  more  intense 
thought  than  any  other  he  had  ever  under- 
taken. 

The  Caledonian  Ccinal  was  another  of  the 
monuments  of  his  talent.  So  were  the  St. 
Catharine  docks,  the  Highland  roads  and 
bridges,  the  canals  of  Salop,  numerous  ac- 
queducts,  and  the  internal  water  communi- 
cations of  Sweden,  connecting  the  Baltic  and 
the  North  sea.  Indeed  nothing  of  any  mo- 
ment was  attempted,  having  reference  to 
the  public  works  of  his  own  country,  with- 
out his  advice  or  co-operation. 

It  is  pleasing  to  think  that  with  all  this 
flush  of  popularity,  and  this  eminence  of  re- 
putation, he  preserved  his  natural  simplicity 
of  character,  and  was  not  less  esteemed  for 
his  private  worth  than  his  public  services. 

During  the  constant  pressure  of  business, 
he  found  time  to  teach  himself  the  Latin, 
French  and  German  languages,  and  to  be- 
come an  accomplished  algebraist. 

Having  known  from  experience  the  me- 
lancholy truth,  "  slow  rises  worth  by  poverty 
depressed,"  although  he  himself  had  boldly 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  79 

soared  above  its  influence,  by  the  unconquer- 
able energy  of  his  own  mental  resources, 
he  became  the  well  known  patron  of  indi- 
gent merit,  and  was  the  means  of  raising 
many  excellent  individuals  to  well  deserved 
distinction.  He  died  in  1834  at  his  resi- 
dence in  Westminster,  and  his  remains 
were  honored  with  a  resting  place  in  the 
Abbey. 

Who  can  reflect  on  the  useful  career  of 
such  a  man,  without  giving  it  a  decided 
preference  over  those  empty  and  deceptive 
pursuits,  which  minister  solely  to  ambition 
without  giving  any  real  claim  to  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  mankind.  And  what 
young  man  need  be  discouraged  at  his  onset 
in  life,  if  he  has  within  him,  the  determina- 
tion to  succeed,  and  the  consciousness  of 
unyielding  integrity.  Thus  armed,  he  may 
bid  defiance  to  difficulties,  overcome  "  the 
proud  man's  scorn,  the  rich  man's  contume- 
ly," and  rise  to  the  station  in  life  for  which 
his  talents  have  rendered  him  worthy.  If 
the  heart  of  a  single  person  who  reads  this 
should  haply  be  nerved  to  new  exertions 
by  the  hasty  sketch  of  a  great  and  a  good 
man,  we  will  not  regret  the  moments  we 
have  snatched  from  the  main  subject  for 
this  brief  digression. 


80  TREATISE  ON  ROADS, 

The  roads  in  Scotland  are  now  highly 
spoken  of.  They  are  said  to  have  improved 
much  more  rapidly  than  those  of  England. 
They  are  managed  by  local  trustees,  or 
government  commissioners,  are  made  either 
at  private  or  the  public  expense,  and  some- 
times both.  In  the  time  of  Cromwell,  his 
well  known  partizan  General  Wade,  by 
means  of  his  soldiery,  commenced  two  cele- 
brated roads  into  the  Highlands  from  Grief  in 
Perthshire,  an  important  pass.  They  were 
250  miles  in  extent  and  were  finally  com- 
pleted in  1737.  They  ran,  however,  over 
such  a  rugged  and  difficult  country  as  to  be 
continually  out  of  repair,  and  the  people 
were  too  poor  to  keep  them  in  order.  These 
early  military  roads  extended  no  further 
north  than  the  Moray  frith  and  along  the 
Caledonian  glen. 

The  wide  and  extensive  country  beyond, 
intersected  by  arms  of  the  sea,  mountain 
streams  and  innumerable  ravines,  was  al- 
most without  any  means  of  intercourse.  A 
very  striking  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  counties  of  Caithness  and 
Sutherland  were  not  required  to  return  ju- 
rors to  the  northern  circuit  at  Inverness. 
Thus  were  civilization  and  the  administra- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  81 

tion  of  justice  retarded  by  the  neglect  of 
internal  improvements,  a  circumstance  too 
often  forgotten  by  those  who  are  opposed  to 
their  progress.  This  state  of  things  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  British  parliament,  which 
resolved  to  extend  the  benefits  of  the  road 
system  through  every  part  of  the  Highlands. 
In  1803  the  commissioners  appointed  under 
an  act  of  the  national  legislature  commenced 
operations,  and  in  the  words  of  a  writer  con- 
nected with  the  superintendence  of  the  com- 
mission, "  a  change  was  effected  in  the  state 
of  the  Highlands  perhaps  unparalleled  in  the 
same  space  of  time  in  the  history  of  any 
country." 

The  expense  was  met  by  legislative  ap- 
propriations and  local  contributions.  Up- 
wards of  875  miles  of  road  and  1117  bridges 
were  the  result  of  this  effort  of  the  government. 
Mr.  Telford,  the  engineer  under  whose  mas- 
terly direction  the  work  was  conducted, 
gained  much  of  his  reputation  by  the  scien- 
tific arrangement  of  his  grades  and  his  tho- 
rough system  of  draining.  Some  of  the  con- 
sequences of  this  splendid  scheme  of  internal 
improvement  may  be  briefly  stated,  and  they 
hold  out  to  the  sceptical  and  the  ignorant, 
the  best  possible  proofs  of  the  advantage 
and  propriety  of  similar  projects  elsewhere. 
11 


82  TREATISE    ON   ROADS. 

It  was  not  till  1806  that  stage  coaches 
were  regularly  established  in  the  Highlands, 
and  the  former  absolute  solitude  of  her  ro- 
mantic glens  is  now  enlivened  by  the  pre- 
sence of  hundreds  and  thousands  of  delight- 
ed travellers  ;  and  everywhere,  commodious 
houses  of  entertainment  have  been  erected, 
and  the  facilities  of  intercourse  enlarged. 
The  effects  upon  the  agriculture  and  inter- 
nal trade  of  the  country  have  gone  hand  in 
hand  with  these  facilities  of  intercommuni- 
cation. Large  crops  of  wheat  are  raised 
in  places  formerly  untilled.  Droves  of  cat- 
tle, neat  habitations,  and  cheerful  farm- 
houses noAV  meet  the  eye,  where  once  was 
all  a  waste.  The  value  of  land  in  the 
north  has  risen  beyond  all  expectation. 
The  estates  of  Chisholm,  (only  one  instance 
out  of  many)  have  risen  in  value  since  1785, 
from  $3,500  to  $25,000  per  annum. 

Besides  these  national  roads,  there  are 
others  made  by  districts,  and  statute  labor, 
which  have  latterly  greatly  increased.  The 
labor  may  be  commuted  for  in  money.  The 
Scottish  highways  which  are  not  turnpiked 
are  managed  by  boards  of  magistrates,  con- 
sisting of  justices  of  the  counties  convened 
annually,  who  appoint  the  subordinate  offi- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS,  83 

cers  and  decide  all  questions  connected  with 
the  subject.  The  defects  of  this  system 
however,  are  sufficient  to  have  induced  most 
of  the  counties  to  obtain  acts  of  parliament 
appointing  trustees,  and  investing  them  with 
the  sole  authority  of  construction  and  ma- 
nagement. 

The  periodical  reports  of  the  commission- 
ers for  these  Scottish  roads,  are  among  the 
most  interesting  documents  of  their  kind, 
and  afford  conclusive  evidence  of  the  utility 
of  roads  even  when  constructed  in  the  most 
unpromising  localities.  These  reports  and 
others  of  a  similar  character  have  for  many 
years  been  made  the  subject  of  parlia- 
mentary examination,  and  the  mass  of  in- 
formation promulgated  by  this  means  has 
led  to  the  most  important  results.  As  an 
evidence  of  the  minuteness  and  character  of 
these  investigations,  it  is  worthy  of  notice 
that  the  commission  of  1808  undertook  to 
ascertain  the  best  form  of  wheels  to  favor 
the  draught  of  horses,  and  preserve  the 
roads  from  injury.  Civil  engineers,  post- 
masters, stage  coach  proprietors,  coach  ma- 
kers, cartwrights  were  all  examined  on  the 
points  most  familiar  to  themselves.  In  1819 
a  general  report  was  made  by  a  committee 


84  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

of  the  House  of  Commons,  containing  the 
most  important  facts,  and  confirming  the 
advantages  of  the  new  system  of  construc- 
tion over  the  old. 

The  roads  of  France  are  generally  straight, 
but  have  been  constructed  with  little  refer- 
ence to  grade.  Their  breadth  varies  from 
thirty  to  seventy  feet,  the  middle  portion  is 
generally  paved  with  stones  six,  eight,  or 
ten  inches  square,  the  foundation  having 
first  been  prepared  and  drained.  Some  are 
built  of  rubble  stone  upon  a  plan  adopted 
by  Turgot  previous  to  the  revolution.  The 
cross  roads  are  scarcely  anything  but  nar- 
row lanes  shaded  with  shrubbery ;  and  most 
of  the  second  class  roads  are  badly  paved, 
or  merely  covered  with  gravel.  They  are 
almost  impassable  during  some  part  of  the 
year.  On  either  side  of  the  road  a  space 
is  generally  left  unpaved,  and  long  formal 
rows  of  trees  comprise  the  vista.  The  de- 
partment of  bridges  and  roads  has  the  di- 
rection of  construction  and  repair,  and  sums 
are  voted  by  the  Chambers  to  be  expended 
under  their  supervision.  In  1830  the  ex- 
penditure for  repairs  amounted  to  nine  mil- 
lion of  dollars.  In  1828  the  royal  roads 
extended  a  distance  of  8631  leagues,  and 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  85 

the  departmental  at  7704,  while  in  that  year 
the  expenditure  on  the  royal  roads  alone 
were  upwards  of  twenty  millions  of  dollars. 
Previous  to  the  revolution,  the  old  system 
of  the  Corvee  remained  in  force,  which  was 
the  obligation  of  the  inhabitants  to  work 
upon  the  roads  or  pay  a  certain  amount  of 
money  for  the  same  object.  It  was  the 
subject  of  so  much  complaint  as  to  have 
been  abolished  at  that  period.  Sir  Henry 
Parnell  in  his  recent  treatise,  says  that  after 
all  the  efforts  of  the  French  statesmen,  the 
system  of  management  is  still  imperfect,  and 
that  some  plan  of  legislation  is  yet  to  be 
devised  by  which  "good  roads  may  be  made 
not  only  from  one  town  to  another,  but  into 
and  through  every  commune  in  France."  M. 
Dupin  complains  equally  of  the  system,  al- 
though that  of  his  own  country.  Before  even 
a  basket  of  stones  can  be  laid  down  on  a  de- 
partmental road,  it  is  necessary  that  an  es- 
timate of  the  expense  should  appear  in  the 
budget  of  the  arrondisement,  then  of  the  de- 
partment, and  then  be  submitted  to  the  bu- 
reau of  Paris,  which  after  due  consideration 
is  returned  whence  it  came,  and  an  engineer 
from  the  public  school,  an  institution  under 
the  Home  Department  and  maintained  at 


86  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

the  public  expense,  is  directed  to  proceed 
at  his  leisure  and  execute  the  repair. 

The  roads  of  Italy  are  well  spoken  of  by 
travellers,  and  are  generally  kept  in  good 
order.  In  Milan,  the  tracks  for  the  wheels 
are  made  of  smooth  stones.  Some  of  those 
which  cross  the  Alps  are  really  wonderful. 
That  of  Mount  Cenis  renders  a  passage  easy 
which  was  once  a  dangerous  and  difficult 
undertaking.  It  is  a  matter  of  doubt  with 
the  antiquarians  whether  the  route  was 
known  to  the  ancients.  Charlemagne  cros- 
sed the  mountain  when  he  attacked  the 
Lombards,  and  since  then  it  has  been  well 
known.  Napoleon,  who  on  more  than  one 
occasion  seemed  to  have  that  emperor  be- 
fore him  as  a  model,  resolved  in  1802,  to 
open  a  safe  and  durable  road  between  Pied- 
mont and  Savoy,  and  the  col  or  neck  of 
Mount  Cenis,  so  called  from  its  being  the 
neck  or  lowest  depression  in  the  main  ridge 
allowing  a  passage,  was  chosen  as  the  most 
feasible  route.  The  French  engineers  pro- 
jected it  with  great  skill,  and  a  carriage 
road  of  thirty  miles  in  length,  and  from 
eighteen  to  thirty  feet  wide  was  made,  at 
an  expense  of  one  million  and  a  half  dollars, 
and  by  the  labor  of  3000  men  working  five 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  87 

months  in  the  year  for  upwards  of  seven 
years.  In  1815  this  hitherto  desolate  and 
almost  unfrequented  pass,  was  thronged  by 
16,000  carriages  and  34,900  mules  and  hor- 
ses. Above  the  wild  and  romantic  plain  of 
St.  Nicolo,  it  pierces  a  rock  of  granite  for 
the  distance  of  650  feet.  Houses  of  refuge 
twenty-six  in  number,  are  maintained  by  the 
income  from  tolls,  and  are  provided  for  the 
benefit  of  travellers  overtaken  by  fogs  and 
snows,  during  which  bells  are  continually 
rung  to  guide  the  steps  of  the  wanderer. 
These  houses,  in  the  time  of  Napoleon,  were 
tenated  by  a  body  of  men  called  canton- 
niers  who  repaired  the  road,  but  the  number 
is  now  reduced  by  the  Sardinian  govern- 
ment to  fifty. 

Another  famous  mountain  road  is  that  of 
Mount  Genevre,  which  in  1802  was  but  a 
mule  path.  It  is  now  in  excellent  order, 
and  has  been  much  used  since  1804.  An 
obelisk  commemmorative  of  this  work  was 
defaced  by  the  Austrians  in  1817.  There 
are  several  other  roads  in  use,  as  that  of  St. 
Gothard,  not  so  well  maintained,  though  cele- 
brated for  its  associations ;  but  without  such 
peculiarity  as  to  demand  a  particular  descrip- 
tion. The  Simplon,  however,  must  not  be  for- 


88  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

gotten.  This  is  the  most  celebrated  of  them 
all.  It  crosses  the  Sempione,  a  mountain  10,- 
327  feet  in  height,  and  was  the  result  of  the 
genius  of  Napoleon,  who  constructed  it  at  the 
joint  expense  of  France  and  Italy.  It  is  thir- 
ty-six miles  long,  and  twenty-five  feet  wide, 
with  so  gentle  a  grade  as  to  allow  the  hea- 
viest wagons  to  pass  up  and  down  without 
difficulty.  It  is  carried  over  precipices,  deep 
gulfs,  high  bridges,  and  through  the  solid 
rock  itself.  The  grand  gallery  over  the 
Frassinone  is  G83  feet  long,  and  the  road 
may  be  described  as  a  series  of  galleries 
and  grottos  ascending  to  a  height  of  6,000 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Some  of 
the  gorges  of  the  mountains  through  which 
it  passes,  are  full  of  what  the  French  term 
the  "lovely  horrors"  of  scenery.  The  views 
at  different  parts,  whether  towards  Italy  or 
Switzerland,  are  represented  as  truly  mag- 
nificent, and  numerous  artists  have  seized 
upon  them  to  give  interest  to  their  portfolios, 
or  the  annuals  which  are  now  produced  in 
so  masterly  a  manner.  There  are  here  also 
the  houses  of  refuge  and  the  cantonniers  as 
on  the  route  of  Mount  Cenis.  Mr.  Cooper, 
who  has  lately  published  a  graphic  ac- 
count of  his  tour  in  Switzerland,  and  par- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  O^ 

ticularly  mentions  his  ascent  and  descent 
of  the  Simplon,  speaks  rather  disparagingly 
of  the  work,  and  as  being  excessively  and 
unworthily  praised.  Yet  his  admiration 
breaks  out  at  times  in  spite  of  himself,  and 
he  admits  that  he  felt  a  sensation  of  wonder 
amid  this  wild  and  awe-inspiring  scenery, 
which  he  approached  upon  a  road  with  a 
surface  as  smooth  as  any  floor. 

Another  traveller  who  preceded  him  a 
few  years,  Mariana  Starke,  whose  name  is 
connected  with  an  itinerary  almost  as  fa- 
mous as  that  of  Antoninus,  speaks  in  warm- 
er language  than  Mr.  Cooper,  of  places  real- 
izing "the  chaos  of  Milton  and  the  inferno 
of  Dante."  We  must  also  acknowledge, 
says  the  fair  tourist,  "  that  men  who  in  de- 
fiance of  such  obstructions  as  these,  could 
form  a  road  exempt  even  from  the  appear- 
ance of  danger,  capable  of  braving  the  most 
furious  storms,  resisting  the  giant  hand  of 
time,  and  conducting  human  beings,  cattle 
and  every  kind  of  carriage  quickly  and  safe- 
ly during  all  seasons  of  the  year,  through 
regions  of  eternal  snow,  deserve  in  point  of 
genius  to  be  ranked  not  only  with,  but 
above  the  ancient  Romans." 


90  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

It  is  a  circumstance  disgraceful  to  human- 
ity, that  on  the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  his 
relentless  enemies  attempted  to  destroy  the 
road,  lest  it  should  keep  his  memory  in  the 
minds  of  men,  and  thus  prove  a  monument 
which  should  outlast  the  brass  and  marble 
of  legitimate  thrones ! 

Mr.  Rogers  in  his  beautiful  poem  of  Italy, 
describes  among  other  things,  the  passes 
over  Mount  Cenis  and  the  Simplon.  and  soft- 
ens down  into  the  picturesque,  what  others 
would  have  treated  as  the  terrific  and  won- 
derful. 

Like  a  silver  zone 

Flung  about  carelessly,  it  shines  afar, 
Catching  the  eye  in  many  a  broken  link, 
In  many  a  turn  and  traverse,  as  it  glides. 

*  *        i'  v«5»«>'  *        *  * 

Yet  thro'  its  fairy  course  go  where  it  will, 
The  torrent  stops  it  not,  the  rugged  rock 
Opens  and  lets  it  in,  and  on  it  runs, 
Winning  its  easy  way  from  clime  to  clime, 
Thro'  glens  locked  up  before." 
The  roads  of  Spain  have  been  already  al- 
luded to  in  this  treatise,  as  well  as  those  of 
Switzerland  for  the  sake  of  illustrating  a  prin- 
ciple of  political  economy.     It  may  be  well 
to  add  to  what  was  there  said,  that  they  are 
in  a  miserable  condition,  and  even  the  royal 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  91 

roads  save  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great  towns, 
are  no  better.  From  Madrid  to  Burgos 
there  are  two  good  roads ;  there  is  another 
from  Valladolid  to  Santander,  and  another  to 
Bilboa.  A  diligence  is  now  said  to  ply  be- 
tween Saragossa  and  Barcelona.  The  funds 
appropriated  to  their  repairs  are  derived  from 
tolls  and  local  taxes,  and  amount  to  $450,- 
000  per  annum.  The  Edinburgh  Review 
for  July  1832,  says  that  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  high  roads,  (such  as  we  have  no- 
ticed) and  which  are  sufficiently  insecure, 
"  there  exists  scarce  a  wagon  or  cart  track 
through  Spain.  In  Salamanca  after  a  suc- 
cession of  abundant  harvests,  the  wheat  has 
been  left  to  rot  because  it  would  not  repay 
the  cost  of  carriage." 

The  roads  of  Portugal  are  of  the  same 
character.  In  Germany  the  roads  resemble 
those  of  France,  except  that  little  or  no 
pains  are  taken  with  the  foundation,  and  of 
consequence  they  are  full  of  ruts  and  often 
impassable. 

The  Dutch  on  the  other  hand  are  very 
particular  in  the  construction  of  theirs.  The 
bed  of  the  roads  is  carefully  prepared,  a 
cement  of  mortar  is  laid  down,  and  upon 
this,  bricks  called  clinkers  are  placed,  with 


92  TREATISE   ON  ROADS. 

their  greatest  diameters  at  right  angles  to 
the  line  of  the  road.  The  smoothness  of 
these  surfaces  is  much  admired.  An  annual 
income  of  over  one  million  of  florins  is  de- 
rived from  them  by  the  government.  It  is 
said  that  the  German  and  Prussian  roads 
are  cut  up  into  ruts,  and  that  it  is  a  common 
contrivance  to  have  the  axles  of  their  car- 
riages so  made,  as  to  be  enlarged  or  dimi- 
nished at  pleasure,  to  suit  the  tracks  used 
in  different  provinces. 

Mr.  Russell  the  author  of  a  late  tour 
through  Germany,  states  that  the  establish- 
ment of  mails,  called  schnell  wagons  or 
velocity  coaches,  which  travel  at  the  rate 
of  five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  at  first  caused 
considerable  excitement.  The  ordinary  di- 
ligence of  the  country  is  of  a  similar  charac- 
ter with  the  roads.  The  luggage  is  placed 
behind  on  a  flooring  or  projecting  platform, 
nearly  as  long  as  the  vehicle  itself,  and  is 
piled  up  and  secured  with  chains  in  total 
disregard  of  the  centre  of  gravity.  This 
process  completed,  the  guard  pays  it  no 
further  attention.  Six  persons  travel  inside 
and  two  outside.  The  low  roof,  the  straight 
backs  of  the  seats  and  the  invariable  ac- 
companiment of  tobacco  smoke,  with  a  speed 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  93 

of  three  miles  an  hour,  are  said  to  make  a 
journey  so  disagreeable  as  to  produce  loath- 
ing ever  after  at  the  very  recollection. 

In  these  countries  as  in  France,  the  tra- 
velling on  the  public  roads  is  under  the 
direction  of  the  government,  and  very  strict 
regulations  exist  as  to  the  kind  of  carria- 
ges, the  number  of  horses,  and  of  the  pas- 
sengers. Among  some  items  of  informa- 
tion in  these  regulations,  are  mentioned  the 
places  where  the  carriage  wheels  are  to  be 
greased,  and  the  fee  that  is  to  be  paid  on 
the  occasion  by  the  surprised  traveller.  All 
the  guide  books  contain  the  rules  of  posting 
but  they  are  so  minute  and  various,  that  it 
would  weary  the  patience  of  the  reader  to 
attempt  their  enumeration. 

The  roads  of  Sweden  are  said  to  be 
excellent  and  equal  to  those  of  England. 
They  are  constructed  of  stone  with  which 
the  country  abounds,  and  are  laid  out  by 
skilful  engineers.  In  Russia  internal  im- 
provements are  going  on,  although  they 
are  not  yet  very  widely  disseminated.  The 
arts  of  war  appear  to  be  most  in  favor 
with  the  government.  A  few  roads  are 
made  on  scientific  principles,  but  the  high 
roar1  from  St.  Petersburgh  to  Moscow  is 


94  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

only  an  elevated  causeway  of  timber  in 
one  long  unvarying  line,  over  marsh  and 
river,  forest  and  field ;  and  as  it  is  construct- 
ed of  logs  joined  together,  it  is  in  many 
places  extremely  rough.  The  trade  of  the 
interior  is  chiefly  conducted  by  means  of 
the  rivers  and  canals  during  the  few  months 
they  are  navigable,  or  in  winter  by  the  use 
of  sleds,  over  roads  impassable  at  other 
seasons.  One  of  the  consequences  of  this 
state  of  things  is  very  long  credits  to  mer- 
chants living  in  the  interior,  because  they 
cannot  reach  the  commercial  ports  without 
great  inconvenience  and  loss  of  time,  and 
therefore  they  rarely  come. 

The  roads  of  South  America  are  scarcely 
to  be  considered  such,  and  are  only  really 
good  in  the  vicinity  of  very  large  towns. 
The  traffic  of  the  interior  is  carried  on  by 
the  tedious  aid  of  mules.  The  roads  of  some 
of  the  Eastern  nations,  such  as  China  and 
of  the  Asiatic  Islands,  as  already  stated, 
are  not  without  interest  in  the  eyes  of  trav- 
ellers, but  throw  little  light  on  the  scientific 
or  commercial  portion  of  our  subject. 

The  roads  of  our  own  country  have  es- 
sentially changed  their  character  within  a 
few  years  past.  They  were  passable  in 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  95 

summer  and  winter  from  'the  very  nature  of 
the  soil  and  the  climate,  but  in  the  spring 
and  autumn,  they  were  proverbially  bad. 
Happily  for  us  our  numerous  lakes  and  riv- 
ers, afforded  facilities  for  transportation  and 
travel  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  make  the 
evils  of  land  carriage  much  more  tolerable 
than  they  would  otherwise  have  been.  Ac- 
counts are  preserved  of  journies  made  in 
the  17th  century,  between  the  then  princi- 
pal towns  of  our  country,  which  required 
the  exercise  of  so  much  patience,  and  con- 
sumed so  much  time,  as  to  make  the  effort 
almost  an  act  of  heroism  on  the  part  of  the 
travellers. 

After  the  year  1803  a  great  many  turn- 
pike roads  were  constructed  throughout  the 
northern  states. 

The  state  of  Connecticut  incorporated 
a  large  number,  and  the  cost  of  their  con- 
struction varied  from  $500  to  $2280  a  mile. 
This  was  the  expenditure  on  the  road  from 
New  Haven  to  Hartford. 

The  income  in  1809  was  eleven  per  cent 
on  the  capital  expended,  as  appears  from 
an  elaborate  report  of  Mr.  Gallatin,  then 
secretary  of  the  treasury  of  the  United 
States. 


96  TREATISE  ON  ROADa. 

The  roads  of  Massachusetts  were  more 
expensive,  some  of  them  cost  no  less  than 
$14,000  per  mile.  Those  to  Salem,  New- 
buryport  and  Providence  were  of  the  best 
class.  The  grades  were  carefully  adjusted 
at  an  angle  no  where  exceeding  5  deg.,  and 
the  surface  was  covered  with  broken  stone. 
A  speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour  was  usual 
with  the  coaches  on  these  lines.  The  route 
from  Boston  to  Newburyport  was  the  ad- 
miration of  travellers :  where  an  expense  of 
$400,000  was  incurred  on  a  distance  of  but 
thirty-two  miles. 

In  our  own  state  the  mania  for  turnpikes 
became  excessive.  During  a  period  of  seven 
years,  sixty-seven  companies  were  incorpo- 
rated, with  a  capital  of  five  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  liberty  to  construct  three  thousand 
miles  of  road. 

Since  1810,  upwards  of  two  hundred  and 
and  sixty  more  have  been  incorporated  with 
large  capitals. 

The  direction  of  these  roads  was  towards 
the  lakes  and  along  the  rivers  of  the  inte- 
rior. Some  of  them  were  very  expensive, 
Such  as  that  between  Albany  and  Schenec- 
tady,  which  was  made  at  an  expense  of 
$10,000  per  mile  and  upwards,  the  actual 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  97 

cost  of  those  in  the  interior  averaged  much 
less,  generally  not  exceeding  $2500,  or  $3,* 
000  per  mile.  Some  of  them  were  very 
profitable.  The  road  from  Utica  to  Canan* 
daigua  paid  for  many  years  a  handsome 
profit  to  the  stockholders.  Generally  they 
have  never  remunerated  their  proprietors, 
nor  paid  much  more  than  the  expense  of 
actual  repairs. 

By  the  revision  of  the  statute  laws  of 
this  state,  a  complete  code  for  the  regulation 
of  turnpikes  and  highways  has  been  put  in 
operation. 

There  is  a  large  number  of  provisions  in 
relation  to  turnpikes,  as  will  be  seen  by 
reference  to  the  law  contained  in  the  ap- 
pendix. 

Some  of  the  principal  features  are  as 
follows : 

After  the  incorporation  is  obtained,  the 
road  is  to  be  laid  out  by  three  commission- 
ers appointed  by  the  governor,  having  no 
interest  in  any  turnpike,  and  not  being  re- 
sidents of  the  county  through  which  the 
road  is  to  pass. 

The  width  is  prescribed  to  four  rods,  ex- 
cept in  unavoidable  circumstances,  and  nev- 
13 


98  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

er  less  than  twenty-two  feet.  The  material 
is  also  prescribed;  stone,  sound  wood,  or  oth- 
er hard  substance,  well  compacted  and  suffi- 
ciently deep  to  secure  a  good  foundation, 
the  surface  to  be  faced  with  gravel  or  bro- 
ken stone  of  nine  inches  deep,  rising  with  a 
gradual  arch  in  the  centre. 

The  law  regulates  the  ditches,  milestones, 
guide  boards,  the  assessments  for  land  taken, 
the  tolls,  the  tire  of  carriages  and  other 
matters  of  a  similar  nature.  All  persons 
going  to  church,  or  a  funeral,  their  usual 
grist  mill  or  black-smith  shop,  to  their  phy- 
sician, to  court  as  a  witness  or  juror,  to 
an  election  or  town  meeting,  and  those  liv- 
ving  within  one  mile  of  a  gate  if  passing  on 
their  own  business,  all  state  and  national 
troops,  are  exempted  from  paying  tolls. 
The  common  roads  or  highways  of  the  state 
are  regulated  by  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  sections  of  the  Revised  Statutes  and 
subjected  to  the  control  of  commissioners 
and  overseers  of  highways.  The  commis- 
sioners have  power  to  lay  out  and  discon- 
tinue roads,  to  divide  towns  into  districts, 
to  assess  road  labor  on  land  owners  and 
resident  males  of  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years.  The  overseers  have  the  special  du- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  99 

ties  of  superintendents.  Many  other  provi- 
sions exist  for  the  maintenance  and  govern- 
ment of  the  roads,  to  which  we  must  refer 
those  who  wish  fully  to  understand  the 
details. 

New  Jersey,  under  the  same  impetus,  un- 
dertook the  construction  of  turnpikes.  The 
great  thoroughfare  was  between  Trenton 
and  Brunswick.  Here  the  angle  of  ascent 
was  not  greater  than  three  degrees  in  any 
place.  The  expense  averaged  about  $2,- 
500  per  mile.  Another  was  extended  from 
Brunswick  to  Easton  on  the  Delaware,  but 
long  before  its  completion,  the  original  funds 
of  the  company  were  exhausted. 

Pennsylvania  did  not  hold  back  at  this 
period.  Numerous  "stone"  roads  were  made 
throughout  the  state.  The  Bristol  and 
Trenton,  the  German  and  Perkiomen,  the 
Lancaster,  Columbia  and  Pittsburg  roads 
were  all  considered  important  public  works. 
To  some  of  these  the  state  made  subscrip- 
tions of  money  and  of  credit.  The  angles 
of  the  grades  were  about  four  degrees. 
Some  of  the  roads  cost  $10,000  per  mile,  and 
others  14,000.  The  tolls  received  were  not 
enough  to  pay  the  interest  and  cost  of  re- 
pairs. It  appears  that  the  lower  stratum 


100  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

of  these  roads  was  generally  broken  stone 
of  the  diameter  of  five  inches.  The  one 
above  it  of  half  that  diameter,  and  the  two 
in  some  instants  were  nearly  thirty  inches 
thickness.  The  surface  of  the  roads  had  a 
slight  convexity,  and  was  sometimes  covered 
at  top  with  gravel.  Whatever  the  defects 
of  construction  might  be  in  view  of  the  pre- 
sent received  systems  of  Telford  and  McAd- 
am,  the  Pennsylvania  roads  enjoyed  a  high 
reputation,  and  the  metropolis  felt  their  good 
effects,  in  the  great  extension  of  her  internal 
trade,  the  enhanced  value  of  her  property, 
and  the  increased  magnitude  of  her  re- 
sources. 

The  roads  of  Maryland  were  also  pushed 
forward  with  great  spirit.  Some  of  them 
cost  $2,000,  some  $7,000  and  others  $10,000 
a  mile  on  an  average.  The  great  road  was 
that  of  Frederickton,  designed  to  divert  the 
western  trade,  and  by  connection  with  the 
Cumberland  road  to  reach  the  navigable 
waters  of  the  Ohio,  The  principles  of  con- 
struction were  the  same  as  those  adopted 
in  Pennsylvania.  South  of  the  Potomac 
but  little  was  effected,  and  up  to  the  present 
time,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  rail-roads, 
the  Southern  states  have  not  done  much  to 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS,  101 

increase  their  home  trade,  or  the  facilities 
of  intercommunication. 

The  Cumberland  road  which  runs  from 
a  town  in  Maryland  on  the  Potomac  to 
Wheeling  on  the  Ohio,  was  made  at  the 
expense  of  the  nation,  and  cost  them  $1,- 
800,000.  As  late  as  the  year  1831  the 
enormous  sum  of  $200,000  and  upwards, 
was  appropriated  to  its  repair.  The  utility 
of  this  road  is  no  longer  doubted,  and  though 
it  is  debated  whether  the  constitution  con- 
tains any  authority  for  its  construction,  yet 
annual  expenditures  are  still  authorized  in 
the  face  of  the  objection,  for  the  improve- 
ment of  this  and  other  roads  in  the  western 
and  southern  states.  In  an  able  report  of 
the  committee  on  roads  and  canals  made  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  1822,  and 
attributed  to  the  pen  of  Judge  Hemphill  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  constitutional  power  of 
Congres  sis  there  ably,  though  only  inciden- 
tally asserted. 

In  the  message  of  Governor  De  Witt  Clin- 
ton to  the  legislature  of  this  state  in  the 
year  1818,  he  remarked  the  imperfections  of 
the  then  existing  turnpike  laws  of  our  own 
state,  and  stated  that  the  condition  of  the 
roads  was  a  "subject  of  general  and  well 
founded  complaint," 


102 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 


In  his  message  the  following  year,  he  par- 
ticularly calls  upon  the  legislature  to  en- 
courage the  construction  of  roads,  "  as  an 
incumbent  duty  and  a  beneficial  exercise  of 
power."  Again  in  1820,  he  urged  on  their 
attention  the  establishment  of  roads  and 
bridges,  by  all  the  motives  which  suggested 
themselves  to  his  powerful  and  comprehen- 
sive mind.  So  far  from  exhibiting  himself 
as  the  exclusive  friend  of  canals,  it  will  be 
found  on  examination,  that  the  subject  of 
roads  was  with  him  a  constant  source  of  so- 
licitude and  a  frequent  theme  of  solicitation. 
To  his  influence,  we  may  indeed  attribute 
most  of  the  reforms  which  took  place  in  the 
existing  laws  with  reference  to  this  subject. 

The  present  generation  do  not  realise  all 
the  greatness  of  DE  WITT  CLINTON.  A  de- 
gree of  familiarity  with  his  person,  a  know- 
ledge of  his  want  of  political  address,  and 
prejudices  embittered  by  party  strife  have 
made  us  less  sensible  of  his  merit  than  we 
should  have  been,  had  his  position  in  public 
life  been  entirely  independent  of  popular 
caprice.  But  though  he  was  doomed  to  ex- 
perience many  of  the  severer  ills  of  life,  and 
to  suffer  the  consequences  of  being  in  ad- 
vance of  the  age,  its  information  and  its 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  103 

opinions,  though  he  went  to  his  grave  with 
a  consciousness  that  his  labors  and  his  poli- 
cy, were  not  all  fully  appreciated,  posterity, 
that  impartial  judge,  will  do  him  justice;  and 
the  state  of  New- York  will  one  day  feel 
that  its  highest  glory,  and  its  proudest  boast 
are  these,  that  here  was  his  birth  place, 
here  his  sphere  of  action.  Mere  politicians 
may  wax  and  wane  through  their  phases  of 
official  greatness,  but  the  name  of  CLINTON 
shall  survive  place  and  placemen,  to  be  the 
veneration  and  love  of  all  succeeding  time. 
The  increase  of  our  population,  however, 
required  additional  facilities,  not  to  be  ob- 
tained by  the  slow  operation  of  wagon  trans- 
portation. The  long  trains  drawn  by  six 
or  eight  horses,  occupying  several  weeks  in 
a  journey,  now  performed  with  the  heaviest 
articles  in  a  few  days,  were  not  characteris- 
tic of  our  citizens,  nor  adapted  to  the  neces- 
sities of  our  country.  The  canals,  those 
honorable  monuments  of  the  well  directed 
energies,  and  the  well  sustained  credit  of 
our  state,  supplied  the  more  urgent  demands 
of  commerce.  These  after  fertilizing  and 
enriching  our  western  domain,  pour  into  the 
public  coffers  an  imperial  revenue.  But  the 
later  adoption  of  rail-roads  has  made  the 


104  TREATISE  ON  ROADS, 

system  of  intercommunication  perfect.  With 
their  usual  energy,  the  American  people 
have  seized  upon  it  at  once,  and  in  this  we 
have  already  outstripped  our  competitors, 
and  surpassed  our  teachers. 

This  invention  distinguishes  modern  times 
from  all  others.  The  ancients  have  been 
Considered  by  enthusiastic  classicists,  as  the 
true  mental  giants,  and  the  moderns  but 
dwarfs  in  comparison.  But  it  has  been  well 
remarked  that  if  the  moderns  are  dwarfs, 
they  have  mounted  on  the  shoulders  of  their 
predecessors,  and  have  attained,  therefore, 
a  much  greater  elevation.  It  is  very  singu- 
lar however,  that  the  greatest  improvements 
are  resolvable  into  the  simplest  elementary 
principles.  In  statuary,  for  instance,  the 
perfection  of  the  art  consists  in  its  close 
resemblance  to  the  simplicity  of  nature. 
Some  of  the  finest  improvements  in  mecha- 
nics owe  their  origin  to  the  contrivances  of 
the  animal  frame;  and  rail-roads  that  seem 
about  to  revolutionize  the  relations  of  socie- 
ty, and  "  annihilate  time  and  distance"  (as 
once  was  the  prayer  of  romantic  love,)  are 
resolvable  into  the  simple  effects  of  smooth- 
ness and  hardness,  two  of  the  most  familiar 
of  the  qualities  of  matter.  To  these  the 

• 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  105 

power  of  steam  has  at  last  been  made  ap- 
plicable, and  it  finds  a  limitless  field  for  its 
operations. 

The  subject  of  rail  roads  has  called  forth 
so  many  writers  whose  works  are  within 
every  one's  reach,  that  the  attempt  to  treat 
it  other  than  in  a  general  way,  would  now 
be  but  a  loss  of  time.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that 
they  have  existed  in  England  since  1676,  if 
not  earlier,  although  their  real  utility  re- 
mained unsuspected  until  a  few  years  past. 
Of  course  they  were  originally  of  the  rudest 
character,  and  used  principally  for  the  trans- 
portation of  coals  from  the  mines  to  some 
place  of  shipment.  One  hundred  years  af- 
terwards they  were  improved  at  the  Shef- 
field collieries  by  the  addition  of  iron  plates 
to  the  wooden  rails.  In  1797  stone  founda- 
tions for  the  superstructure  were  adopted  by 
Mr.  Barnes  at  the  New-Castle  mines,  and  in 
1800,  they  were  used  in  Derbyshire.  The 
first  clear  manifestation  of  their  utility  was 
evident  in  1825  through  the  successful  opera- 
tions of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  rail- 
way, and  in  1830  the  Liverpool  and  Manches- 
ter road  went  into  operation,  surpassing  in  all 
respects  the  warmest  anticipations  of  its 
14 


106  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

friends.  Other  great  roads  have  since  been 
completed  in  England,  particularly  that  be- 
tween London  and  Birmingham.  Some  small 
ones  are  in  successful  operation  in  Ireland, 
and  the  plan  of  a  grand  route  across  the  island 
from  Valentia,  the  projected  port  of  the  At- 
lantic steam  packets,  is  also  under  discussion. 
They  have  been  introduced  into  France,  Bel- 
gium, and  Russia,  and  will  probably  become 
universal  throughout  Europe. 

A  considerable  number  have  been  con- 
structed in  our  own  country,  and  are  in  suc- 
cessful operation.  It  would  be  needless  to 
take  up  time  by  a  minute  description  of  the 
American  rail  roads,  since  the  encyclope- 
dias, guides,  and  pocket  books  of  the  coun- 
try, abound  with  details,  maps  and  profiles  of 
all  the  most  celebrated. 

An  important  and  as  yet  an  unsettled  con- 
troversy has  arisen  abroad  in  relation  to  the 
comparative  merits  of  rail  roads  and  canals, 
and  the  debate  was  at  one  time  equally 
warm  in  the  United  States.  Tables  have 
been  constructed  by  which  it  is  shewn  that 
at  a  speed  under  three  miles  an  hour,  the  ad- 
vantages of  horse  power  upon  canals  is  as  4 
to  3  in  favor  of  the  latter.  Above  that  ve- 
locity the  advantages  rapidly  increase  in  fa- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  107 

Tor  of  rail  roads.  At  a  rate  of  twenty  miles 
an  hour  they  are  preferable  to  canals  in  the 
ratio  of  5  to'  1.  Over  turnpikes  they  have  a 
still  more  decided  advantage,  the  item  of  fric- 
tion alone  being  twenty  times  less,  according 
to  Dr.  Lardner,  on  the  one  than  the  other. 

The  developement  however  of  a  new  law 
of  resistance,  inferred  from  actual  experi- 
ments made  in  Scotland  upon  the  canals  of 
that  country,  had  a  tendency  to  make  spe- 
culators more  wary  for  a  time  in  the  pur- 
chase of  rail-way  shares.  We  say  for  a  time 
only,  because  the  confidence  in  rail-ways  is 
now  greater  than  ever,  and  England  will  be 
soon  traversed  by  them  in  all  directions. 

In  1830  a  species  of  light  craft,  made  of 
sheet  iron,  and  called  swift  boats,  were  con- 
structed to  ply  at  a  speed  of  nine  and  a  half 
miles  an  hour,  upon  the  Paisley  canal,  where 
at  this  time,  an  average  speed  of  ten  miles  is 
said  to  be  maintained.  The  canal  is  shal- 
low, narrow  and  crooked,  and  only  twelve 
miles  in  length.  The  boats  are  seventy  feet 
long,  five  feet  six  inches  broad,  the  roofs  are 
of  wood  covered  with  oiled  canvass,  and  the 
hulls  are  formed  of  light  iron  ribs  and  plates. 
They  usually  carry  seventy  passengers,  but 
sometimes  have  as  many  as  one  hundred  and 


108  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

ten.  The  entire  cost  of  each  is  $625,  and 
the  value  of  the  two  horses  that  draw  them 
in  stages  of  four  miles  each,  is  $250  a  pair. 
They  travel  this  distance  in  twenty-two 
minutes,  and  each  team  performs  its  route 
about  four  times  a  day.  It  is  asserted  that 
the  actual  cost  of  each  boat,  including  in- 
terest of  capital,  deduction  for  sinking  fund, 
wear  and  tear,  and  indeed  every  item  of  ex- 
pense, is  but  £2  2s.  4d.  per  day,  while  the 
receipts  at  a  penny  per  mile  for  each  passen- 
ger in  the  best  cabin,  alone  amount  to  £4 
per  day. 

Experiments  were  carefully  made  by  Mr. 
McNeill,  the  author  of  a  work  on  the  resist- 
ance to  the  passage  of  boats  on  canals  and 
other  bodies  of  water,  to  ascertain  the  truth 
of  the  long  received  law  that  the  resistance 
is  as  the  square  of  the  velocity.  By  the  use 
of  his  dynamometer,  the  speed  of  an  iron 
passage  boat  weighing  three  and  a  half  tons 
and  drawn  by  two  horses,  at  the  rate  of  ten 
miles  and  a  fraction  of  a  half  mile  per  hour 
indicated  a  resistance  of  285  Ibs.  and  a  frac- 
tion over,  when  by  the  old  theory  it  should 
have  been  429  Ibs.  The  cause  of  this  dis- 
parity is  explained  by  the  emergence  of  the 
boat  from  the  water,  but  this  has  not  been 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  109 

mathematically  demonstrated.  One  result 
developed  itself  as  a  consequence  of  this 
new  principle,  that  a  horse  could  do  270  per 
cent  more  work  on  a  canal  than  is  allowed 
by  Tredgold,  and  750  per  cent  more  than  al- 
lowed  by  Wood.  The  attendant  ripple  of 
these  boats  is  said  not  to  be  greater  than 
that  of  a  canal  boat  moving  at  the  rate  of 
four  miles  an  hour.  The  system  of  light 
boats  has  been  introduced  in  England,  after 
having  been  successfully  tried  on  the  princi- 
pal canals  of  Scotland. 

In  a  very  entertaining  and  useful  work  re- 
cently published  by  Sir  George  Head,  a  bro- 
ther of  Sir  Francis,  the  performance  of  the 
English  boats  is  particularly  stated.  The 
Arrow,  built  after  the  Scotch  model,  and 
drawing  but  twelve  inches  of  water  with 
forty  passengers  and  all  their  luggage,  plies 
on  the  Carlisle  and  Annan  canal  at  the  uni- 
form rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour. 

Two  similar  boats,  the  Waterwitch  and 
Swiftsure,  ran  upon  the  canal  from  Preston 
to  Kendall,  and  accomplished  a  distance 
of  fifty-seven  miles,  passing  seven  or  eight 
locks,  in  seven  hours,  In  these  instances,  he 
describes  the  fatigue  of  the  horses  as  being 
distressing  and  injurious  in  the  extreme, 


110  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

and  he  seems  to  think  that  the  injury  done 
them  a  great  and  decided  draw-back  to  the 
supposed  gain  of  speed. 

Although  the  advantages  of  rail-ways  in 
the  transportation  of  passengers  and  light  ar- 
ticles are  well  understood,  and  indeed  much 
more  than  these  are  claimed  for  them  by 
very  eminent  writers,  many  things  are  yet 
to  be  tested  before  their  maximum  effect 
can  be  realized.  As  an  example,  engineers 
yet  differ  whether  it  is  best  to  concentrate 
the  inequalities  of  a  grade  in  one  part  of  the 
line  of  road,  or  spread  them  over  the  whole. 
Whether  stationary  engines  are  most  econo- 
mical and  convenient,  or  whether  additional 
locomotive  power  should  generally  be  em- 
ployed in  their  stead.  Some  eminent  per- 
sons contend  that  where  the  inclination  ex- 
ceeds twenty-one  feet  in  a  mile,  the  same 
power  will  transport  a  weight  either  way 
equally  well,  and  is  the  same  that  would 
be  necessary  for  an  equal  distance  on  a 
Level  rail-way.  Where  speed  is  preferable 
to  other  considerations  it  is  best  unqestiona- 
bly  to  use  locomotive  engines  to  the  full 
extent  of  their  capability.  Dr.  Lardner  es- 
timated its  limit  of  usefulness  to  a  grade  of 
fifty  feet  in  the  mile,  and  contends  that 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  Ill 

beyond  that  stationary  engines  ate  neces- 
sary. This  however  is  denied.  Satisfac- 
tory experiments  have  been  made  in  this 
country  to  show  that  grades  of  much  greater 
elevation  may  be  successfully  worked  by 
locomotives  of  American  construction.  Mr, 
Baldwin  of  Philadelphia  has  produced  them 
of  sufficient  power  to  ascend  an  inclined 
plane  of  2745J  feet,  having  an  elevation  of 
ISYfo  feet  in  that  distance,  being  upwards  of 
350  feet  in  a  mile,  at  full  speed,  with  a  train 
of  cars  containing  passengers.  The  details 
of  that  experiment  not  being  within  reach, 
it  may  be  well  to  refer  to  a  similar  one 
made  by  an  engine  manufactured  by  Mr. 
Norris  of  Philadelphia,  upon  the  same  plane. 
It  ascended  with  two  car's  and  sixty-three 
passengers  in  three  minutes  and  fifteen  se- 
conds. The  gross  weight  including  engine 
and  tender  was  48,500  Ibs.  On  descending, 
eighty  more  passengers  were  added  to  the 
load,  and  yet  the  engine  and  train  were  found 
perfectly  under  control,  and  were  three 
times  brought  to  a  dead  stop  at  the  plea- 
sure of  the  engineer,  and  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  all  present.  Several  of  our  most 
important  rail-ways  are  graded  in  some  parts 
of  their  lines  as  high  as  eighty  feet  to  the 


112  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

mile,  and  are  in  successful  operation.  The 
great  western  rail-way  to  connect  Boston 
and  Albany  is  graded  on  this  principle.  It 
is  not  proper  however  to  consider  this  sub- 
ject as  entirely  settled,  since  the  opinions  of 
scientific  men  are  still  at  variance  in  relation 
to  it. 

Another  consideration  connected  with  the 
construction  of  rail-ways  has  not  been  suffi- 
ciently attended  to,  the  necessity  of  having 
the  best  preliminary  surveys.  If  after  a  line 
is  marked  out,  a  better  one  is  discovered,  an 
absolute  loss  to  the  proprietors  will  have 
accrued  by  the  difference  of  the  cost  of  con- 
struction, and  the  wear  and  tear  of  trans- 
portation, which  might  have  been  avoided. 
Many  of  our  roads  have  been  laid  out  too 
hastily.  A  very  high  degree  of  talent  is 
necessary  in  this  department  of  civil  engi- 
neering, and  scientific  attainments  of  the 
most  profound  character  will  find  themselves 
fully  employed.  The  mathematician  here 
finds  the  value  of  his  previous  studies.  He 
is  called  upon  to  put  in  practice  his  know- 
ledge of  curves,  of  resistance,  of  gravity,  and 
motion.  How  beneficial  the  change  of  this 
direction  of  his  studies.  Too  often  employ- 
ed in  calculations,  which  have  tended  to 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS*  113 

render  the  bullet  more  certain  and  the  shell 
more  deadly,  he  now  traces  out  the  lines 
of  a  peacefully  travelled  road,  where  the 
quiet  pursuits  of  life  are  hastened  to  a  pros- 
perous conclusion. 

A  good  engineer  is  not  only  a  theorist 
but  a  practical  man.  He  ascertains  the 
amount  of  transportation  ascending  and  de- 
scending, the  character  of  the  country,  the 
nature  of  the  soil,  its  products,  the  facility 
of  material,  of  draining,  the  necessity  if 
any  of  deflections  in  the  line  of  his  road,  the 
number  and  location  of  the  curves,  and  each 
particular  involves  the  most  extensive  and 
careful  calculations. 

The  details  of  construction  have  also  their 
questions.  The  best  kinds  of  rails,  their 
weight  and  form,  the  most  suitable  guage 
the  strength  of  the  various  materials,  the 
form  of  embankments,  of  viaducts,  the  best 
sidelongs  or  turnouts,  require  great  experi- 
ence and  skill  in  the  engineer. 

When  the  road  is  finished,  then  come  oth- 
er embarrassments.  The  force  of  effective 
traction,  of  friction,  the  form,  stability  and 
power  of  locomotive  engines,  present  them- 
selves for  consideration.  Volumes  are  writ- 
ten on  these  points  and  there  is  yet  room  for 
15 


114  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

more.  There  are  upwards  of  sixty  different 
kinds  of  locomotive  engines  known  to  sci- 
entific men;  and  their  various  pretensions 
and  the  principles  of  their  construction  are 
subjects  of  continued  interest.  It  is  indeed 
astonishing  to  think  what  a  field  has  been 
opened  to  research  by  the  application  of 
steam  to  the  propulsion  of  locomotive  and 
marine  engines.  A  recent  writer  of  emi- 
nence excused  himself  for  entering  upon  the 
subject,  by  hinting,  how  much  was  yet  to  be 
reduced  to  general  principles,  in  the  opera- 
tions of  rail-way  engines.  Thus  the  pres- 
sure of  steam  in  the  boilers,  hitherto  thought 
to  be  invariable  in  the  same  engine,  the  in- 
dications of  the  safety  valve,  the  pressure  of 
steam  in  the  cylinders,  the  evaporating  pow- 
er, the  lead  of  the  slide,  or  in  other  words, 
the  amount  of  opening  left  in  the  induction 
valves  purposely  to  produce  an  easier  and 
swifter  motion  of  the  piston  rods,  a  rule  of 
equation  determining  the  practical  power  of 
an  engine,  the  velocity  and  load  of  a  loco- 
motive, the  form  of  the  wheels  best  adapted 
to  passing  curves,  their  size  as  best  adapted 
to  speed,  and  the  consumption  of  fuel,  are 
matters  not  fully  understood  and  not  yet  per- 
fectly systematised.  In  time  these  and  oth- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  115 

er  difficulties  will  have  been  overcome  by 
talent  and  experience. 

That  a  constantly  high  rate  of  interest 
can  be  expected  from  investments  in  rail 
roads  is  we  believe  an  error  which  time  will 
rectify.  Under  the  best  possible  manage- 
ment, the  expenses  can  never  be  brought  to 
an  invariable  standard.  Such  must  be  the 
number  of  agents,  such  the  necessity  of  con- 
stant renovation,  such  the  casualties,  and 
such  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  operating 
power,  that  entire  certainty  can  not  be  ex- 
pected. But  few  cases  have  occurred  where 
the  outlay  has  kept  within  the  estimates  of 
the  engineers.  Perhaps  this  is  all  for  the 
best.  For  did  any  one  pursuit  of  men  as- 
sure unerringly  a  higher  profit  than  the  rest, 
all  would  make  it  their  business. 

No  investment  contrived  by  human  inge- 
nuity ever  produced  uniform  results.  Even 
the  gold  finder  often  ascertains  to  his  satis- 
faction that  his  is  a  losing  occupation.  So  of 
rail  roads.  Their  utility  will  commend  them 
to  the  favor  of  the  public,  and  if  they  should 
fall  below  the  standard  of  profit  which  the 
sanguine  have  assigned  them,  they  will  be- 
come the  property  of  capitalists  who  seek 
less  returns  for  their  money,  than  the  mere 


116  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

speculator,  or  be  owned  by  the  States  in 
which  they  are  constructed.  These  can 
afford  to  overlook  the  mere  advantage  of 
income,  in  the  general  prosperity  they  dif- 
fuse among  the  people. 

But  there  are  other  views  of  this  subject 
which  are  equally  striking  in  a  political 
sense. 

The  vast  increase  of  rail-ways  as  the 
most  useful  and  expeditious  mode  of  con- 
veyance, will  tend  in  a  great  degree  to  the 
neglect  of  the  turnpikes  and  country  roads. 
This  will,  in  fact,  subject  the  business  and 
convenience  of  the  public  to  the  rules  and 
regulations  of  private  companies ;  for  if  the 
existing  highways  become  impassable  from 
neglect,  or  through  the  superiority  of  rail- 
way conveyances  in  their  neighborhood, 
either  they  must  be  kept  in  repair  by  the 
few  who  continue  to  use  them,  which  may 
prove  a  heavy  burthen,  or  else  the  public 
should  have  some  control  over  the  rail-ways 
which  they  are  thus  in  a  measure  compelled 
to  travel.  It  is  therefore  a  wholesome  pro- 
vision in  some  charters,  that  the  roads  au- 
thorised by  them,  may  become  public  pro- 
perty at  a  future  day,  upon  repayment  of 
the  capital,  with  an  interest  of  ten  or  fifteen 
per  cent  per  annum. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  117 

The  permanency  of  these  structures  is  a 
question  much  agitated.  In  Europe  they 
are  much  more  expensively  constructed  than 
in  our  own  country,  and  some  of  the  staunch 
advocates  of  legitimate  thrones,  and  the 
political  ascendancy  of  an  aristocracy  of 
church  and  state,  contend  that  the  slight- 
ness  of  our  rail  road  structures,  is  the  result 
of  our  institutions,  and  the  constitution  of 
our  society.  They  say  that  our  rail  roads 
are  projected  in  -the  consciousness  of  the 
uncertainty  of  our  government,  and  that  our 
"lives,  laws,  securities,  private  engagements, 
public  treaties,  religion,  morality  and  all, 
float  upon  the  uncertain  will  and  irresistible 
passions  of  the  multitude." 

This  is  a  superficial  remark.  The  reasons 
which  operate  on  the  minds  of  capitalists  are 
these,  that  to  make  an  investment  in  a  rail- 
way which  should  not  bring  a  rate  of  inter- 
est equal  to  that  ordinarily  received  from 
other  investments,  would  be  an  act  of  folly, 
and  such  a  one  as  no  English  capitalist 
would  make  in  his  own  country.  The  se- 
cret with  us  lies  in  the  deficiency  of  capital. 
When  we  have  acquired  as  much  private 
wealth  as  England,  and  a  low  rate  of  inter- 
est becomes  universal,  then  our  rail-ways 


118  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

will  be  built  at  as  great  an  expense  as  hers, 
but  not  before.  An  outlay  which  will  here 
return  ten  per  cent,  would  bring  but  two,  if 
the  expense  of  construction  were  increased 
five-fold. 

That  the  instability  of  our  institutions  does 
not  affect  this  question,  is  evident  from  the 
expenditures  every  where  made  on  our  pub- 
lic buildings,  bridges,  churches  and  canals. 
And  those  British  writers  who  assert  that 
we  look  with  "  admiration  and  envy"  on 
those  institutions  of  theirs  which  protect 
11  the  property  of  the  few  from  the  Briarian 
fingers  of  the  many,"  forget  one  grand  prin- 
ciple of  our  institutions,  which  is  that  the 
many  have  no  inducement  to  plunder  the  few; 
no  unequal  or  unjust  laws  compel  them  to  be 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  a 
privileged  order,  or  to  give  place  to  the  arti- 
ficial creations  of  society,  which  have  no  real 
or  just  foundation.  Property  must  be  more 
secure  here  than  hfany  other  country  of  the 
world,  because  it  cannot  be  taken  away  by 
taxation  without  consent  of  the  owners,  and 
because  it  is  the  interest  of  every  citizen, 
that  his  own  earnings  should  be  protected, 
in  order  that  he  himself  may  acquire  proper- 
ty. This  a  principle  seated  so  deeply  in  hu- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  119 

man  nature  as  not  to  allow  any  doubt  upon 
the  subject. 

On  the  contrary,  in  that  country  where  its 
wealth  lies  in  a  few  hands,  and  by  its  very 
institutions  and  laws  must  be  there  for 
ever  retained,  where  the  majority  of  its  peo* 
pie  are  condemned  to  hopeless  poverty,  there 
is  far  greater  danger  of  the  insecurity  of  pro^ 
perty  than  any  other.  Nothing  but  an  out- 
let to  the  mass  of  the  discontented  by  emi- 
gration and  colonization  has  kept,  or  can 
keep  such  a  country  from  revolution. 

To  return  from  this  digression,  it  follows 
that  if  the  public  interests  should  prove  to 
be  impaired  by  this  practical  monopoly  of 
the  right  of  way,  and  by  the  fixing  of  the 
time,  the  place  and  the  mode  of  travelling, 
at  the  option  of  the  carriers  rather  than  the 
carried,  it  is  urged  that  they  should  in  some 
way  be  regulated  by  the  public  authorities 
and  subjected  to  scientific  control. 

The  Columbia  rail  road,  which  is  the  pro-^ 
perty  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and  is- 
under  the  direction  of  the  sate  authorities,, 
now  pays  its  incidental  expenses,  and  the' 
interest  of  the  capital.  It  has  proved  of 
vast  importance  to  the  public  even  at  a  time1 
when  its  receipts  were  not  remunerating,  and 


120  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

it  must  continue  to  be  an  important  tho- 
rough-fare. 

Another  consideration  connected  with  the 
subject,  is  the  question  of  the  successful  ap- 
plication of  steam  to  the  propulsion  of  car- 
riages upon  turnpike  roads,  and  the  effect 
this  may  have  on  rail-ways.  Many  such  en- 
gines have  been  built,  and  some  have  actual- 
ly plied  for  months  together.  Treatises  writ- 
ten by  confident  inventors  have  been  pub- 
lished from  time  to  time,  asserting  their  ad- 
vantages, and  the  certainty  of  success,  and 
parliamentary  inquiries  have  been  made  at 
great  length  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  these 
pretensions. 

It  may  be  safely  predicted  of  this  branch 
of  locomotion,  that  much  yet  remains  to  be 
accomplished  before  it  can  compete  even  on 
the  best  turnpikes,  with  locomotion  upon 
rail-ways. 

Having  now  briefly  discussed  our  subject, 
it  may  be  expedient  to  allude  to  one  other 
consideration,  that  of  the  unceasing  opposi- 
tion, which  men  of  contracted  views  offer  to 
the  extension  of  the  general  system  of  inter- 
nal improvement.  This  opposition  is  as  old 
as  civilization,  and  perhaps  is  a  useful  ingre- 
dient in  the  composition  of  society.  Were 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  121 

there  no  gravity,  and  no  friction,  the  very 
tendencies  of  matter  would  become  danger- 
ous, and  were  there  no  croakers  and  no 
sceptics,  we  should  perhaps  be  the  creatures 
of  imagination  and  of  hope.  Still  as  there 
is  enough  of  doubt  in  the  world,  to  keep 
down  the  enthusiasm  of  genius^  especially 
where  it  attempts  to  erect  its  fabrics  with 
the  wealth  of  others,  the  friends  of  society 
and  the  advocates  of  internal  improvement 
must  not  relax  their  efforts,  nor  their  argu- 
ments, if  they  wish  to  see  the  march  of  im* 
provement  continue.  It  may  therefore  safe- 
ly be  laid  down  as  an  axiom,  that  whatever 
creates  business,  facilitates  intercourse,  and 
unites  communities,  tends  to  their  comfort 
and  advantage,  and  confers  benefits  upon 
men,  of  value  infinitely  beyond  an  esti- 
mate in  dollars  and  cents.  No  statesman, 
no  people,  no  government  can  go  wrong  in 
thus  consulting  the  public  good.  Every 
measure  founded  on  this  basis,  will  stand 
the  "  test  of  scrutiny  and  time.'5 

Nor  is  another  consideration  unworthy  of 

notice,   that  the  expenditure  of  money  in 

public  improvements  is  not  a  loss  of  the 

amount  expended,  nor  is  a  debt  based  on  a 

16 


122  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

productive  work  an  evil  of  the  character  it 
has  been  assumed  to  be.  The  opponents  of 
the  Erie  canal  talked  of  the  State  debt  it 
was  about  to  create,  as  a  measure  of  cer- 
tain destruction  to  the  prosperity  of  the  peo- 
ple. They  did  not  understand  that  vis  me- 
dicatrix  in  political  economy,  by  which  such 
expenditures  of  capital  are  replaced;  nor 
knew  that  the  voluntary  contributions  of 
trade,  commerce,  and  travel  upon  our  estab- 
lished thoroughfares-  make  up  in  a  short 
time,  sums  equal  to  the  most  liberal  outlay 
of  capital. 

The  Erie  canal  has  not  only  repaid  its 
cost,  and  furnished  means  for  other  improve- 
ments, while  it  also  remains  the  property  of 
the  public,  but  the  very  money  which  it  cost 
that  public,  has,  to  more  than  an  equal 
amount  been  gained  in  the  enhancement  of 
values  in  its  vicinity,  in  the  increased  profit 
of  land,  the  establishment  of  towns  and  ci- 
ties, mills  and  manufactories,  and  the  em- 
ployment furnished  a  large  and  increasing 
population. 

It  is  possible  another  objection  may  be 
taken  to  the  prosecution  of  works  of  inter- 
nal improvement — that  they  have  a  ten- 
dency to  increase  unequally  the  wealth  of 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  123 

certain  portions  of  the  community.  The 
philosophy  of  some  minds  is  to  oppose  all 
measures,  which  appear  to  remunerate  capi- 
tal as  well  as  labor. 

This  is  an  unworthy  spirit  in  a  country 
where  labor  becomes  capital  sooner  than  in 
any  other  in  the  world.  Let  us  suppose  that 
the  most  radical  of  the  Roman  agrarians 
were  amongst  us,  and  could  induce  us  to 
adopt  his  theory  in  its  widest  sense. 

Suppose  our  roads  and  canals  were  blot- 
ted from  our  maps,  and  each  citizen  lived 
exclusively  for  himself.  However  independ- 
ent in  his  feelings,  or  desirous  of  remaining 
so,  he  would  find  his  own  ingenuity  and 
personal  exertion  insufficient  to  supply  some 
of  his  most  urgent  wants :  nor  is  this  all,  he 
could  not  find  leisure,  even  if  he  had  ingenui- 
ty. He  must  either  forego  at  once  the  ac- 
customed enjoyments  of  life,  or  be  content 
with  an  existence  no  better  than  semi-bar- 
barous. A  bad  crop  or  a  sick  family  would 
plunge  him  into  the  deepest  distress.  Did 
he  seek  employment  as  a  means  of  relieving 
his  wants,  he  would  be  compelled  to  await 
his  remuneration  at  the  pleasure  of  his  em- 
ployer, who  would  be  equally  dependent  on 
his  own  labor,  or  his  expected  crop.  For  no 


124  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

man  could  have  a  supply  on  hand,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  property  being  contrary  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  agrarianisrn. 

The  unavoidable  tendency  of  this  state  of 
things  would  be  to  reduce  the  motives  of 
men  to  the  mere  object  of  obtaining  food 
and  clothing,  and  any  attempt  to  surpass 
their  neighbors  in  the  abundance  or  quality 
of  either,  would  also  be  resented  as  an  at- 
tempt to  create  wealth  in  an  undue  degree. 

Upon  tracing  out  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences of  this  principle,  we  perceive  that 
ignorance  and  squalid  poverty  would  pos- 
sess the  land,  the  intellectual  would  yield  to 
the  physical,  and  all  the  high  impulses  of 
our  nature  be  sacrificed  to  but  little  better 
than  animal  instinct. 

We  have  examples  of  semi-barbarism, 
teaching  us  its  degradation  in  the  annals  of 
almost  every  nation.  The  nearer  we  go 
back  to  periods,  when  internal  improve- 
ments were  unknown,  and  the  objects  of 
men  were  mere  existence,  the  more  degrad- 
ed do  we  find  their  condition. 

In  the  times  of  the  early  Britons  who  re- 
trograded in  civilization  after  the  departure 
of  the  Romans,  it  is  evident  that  though 
they  were  unquestionably  actuated  by  a 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS,  125 

high  love  of  freedom,  they  never  knew  its 
real  advantages.  Ignorant  of  the  arts  of 
peace,  and  the  benefits  of  a  commercial 
system,  they  were  compelled  in  their  deal- 
ings with  each  other  to  rely  on  what  was 
termed  animal  money,  as  the  medium  of 
exchange.  So  little  had  they  advanced 
in  the  arts  of  life,  that  they  graduated 
a  scale  of  prices  for  their  domestic  ani- 
mals, which  were  received  in  payment  of 
their  debts.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  allude 
to  the  nature  of  such  a  currency  as  this,  and 
its  utter  inapplicability  to  the  wants  of  a 
refined  and  intelligent  people.  However 
much  the  system  of  credit  may  be  derided, 
we  imagine  no  one  at  the  present  day 
would  advocate  the  adoption  of  "animal 
money." 

While  other  nations  boast  of  their  anti- 
quity, we  rejoice  in  the  strength  of  our 
youth,  and  in  the  energy  of  our  purpose. 

Others  may  point  to  their  piles  of  mason- 
ry, which  have  occupied  centuries  in  con- 
struction, and  quote  their  ruins  as  the  proofs 
of  early  civilization.  We  aim  at  no  such 
distinction.  We  are  for  making  life,  brief 
as  it  is,  the  means  of  infinite  good,  and 
giving  to  its  ordinary  limits,  opportunities, 

•  ** 


126  TREATISE  ON  ROADS. 

privileges  and  enjoyments,  which  mere  an- 
tiquity could  never  give. 

The  opening  of  communications  is  one  of 
the  first  duties  of  any  country  which  desires 
to  increase  its  wealth,  its  resources  and  its 
power.  Without  them,  no  permanent  ad- 
vances can  be  made. 

Let  our  course  then  be  onward.  If  all 
we  have  accomplished  as  a  nation,  or  as 
communities  is  but  the  work  of  yesterday, 
let  us  not  forget  that  it  is  equally  in  our 
power,  to  have  a  bright  to-day,  and  a  still 
more  glorious  to-morrow. 


APPENDIX. 


41 

*    1 


APPENDIX. 


NOTE. 

In  order  to  render  the  foregoing  treatise  more  gen- 
erally useful  than  it  would  otherwise  be,  this  appen- 
dix is  added,  containing  some  particulars  in  relation 
to  the  subject  discussed,  which  could  not  be  conven- 
iently inserted  in  any  other  place. 


PAVEMENTS. 

The  following  are  the  different  kinds  of  pavements 
known  and  described  in  the  works  of  English  road 
makers. 

1.  Pebble  paving,  used  in  ornamental  design,  done 
with  kidney  shaped  stones,  obtained  from  Guernsey, 
and  when  well  laid,  extremely  durable. 

2.  Rag  paving,  with  stone  obtained  from  Maidstone, 
Kent,  whence  the  name  Kentish  Ragstone.     There 
are  square  stones  of  this  material  for  coach  tracks  and 
footways.    This  kind  of  paving  was  once  much  used 
in  London. 

17 


130  APPENDIX. 

3.  Purbeck  pitchers.     Stones  from  6  to  10  iuches 
square,  and  5  deep,  brought  from  the  island  of  Pur- 
beck,  and  used  in  Court  yards. 

4.  Square  paving  :  being  of  cubical  stones  of  blue 
whynn — called  Scotch  paving — out  of  use. 

5.  Scotch  granite :  used  for  the  London  road  pave- 
ments. 

6.  Guernsey  and  Herm  blue  granite.     Extensive 
quarries  are  now  opened  to  supply  the  London  mar- 
ket.    The  stones  are  dressed  in  form  of  a  prismoid, 
and  laid  with  the  ends  down,  bedded  in  gravel. 

7.  Purbeck  paving,  of  blue  stone  in  large  surfaces 
2^  inches  thick,  used  for  flags. 

8.  Yorkshire  paving,  of  large  dimensions,  imper- 
vious to  water,  and  unaffected  by  frost. 

9.  Ryegate  or  fire  stone  paving :  used  for  hearths, 
stoves  and  ovens. 

10.  New  Castle  flags:  about  2  feet  square  and  2 
inches  thick,  for  out  door  offices. 

11.  Portland  paving — from  Portland:    sometimes 
interspersed  with  black  dots. 

12.  Swedland  paving:  a  black  slate  dug  in  Leices- 
tershire, much  used  in  paving  halls  and  party  color 
paving. 

13.  Marble  paving:  party  colored,  mosaic,  or  plain. 

14.  Flat  brick  paving :  laid  in  sand  and  mortar,  or 
grouted. 

15.  Brick-on-edge  paving. 

16.  Bricks  laid  in  herring-bone  fashion. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  131 

17.  Bricks  set  endwise. 

18.  Paving  bricks  prepared  specially  for  the  pur- 
pose. 

19.  Ten  inch  tiles. 

20.  Foot  tiles. 

21.  Clinkers:  used  in  stables. 

Nor  are  these  all :  numerous  inventions  applicable 
to  these  and  other  materials,  all  have  their  reputation 
and  supporters. 


ASPHALTUM. 

The  mineral  bitumen  used  for  the  composition  of 
cement,  is  procured  chiefly  from  the  Lower  Rhine, 
from  the  Pare  in  the  Department  of  Ain,  and  from  the 
Puy  de  la  poix,  from  the  Puy  de  dome.  Boiled  Coal 
tar  will  do  as  well.  In  these  localities,  is  found  the 
limestone  impregnated  with  bitumen,  which  gives 
consistency  to  the  cement.  It  is  well  dried,  ground 
to  powder,  sifted  and  stirred  while  hot,  in  about  one- 
fifth  its  weight  of  melted  asphaltum,  contained  in  a 
cast  iron  boiler.  Dry  chalk  or  bricks,  ground  or  sift- 
ed will  do  as  well.  As  some  of  this  paste  is  made 
homogeneous,  it  is  lifted  out  with  an  iron  shovel  and 
spread  in  rectangular  moulds,  fastened  on  a  surface  of 
smoothed  planks  covered  with  sheet  iron,  the  sides  of 
the  moulds  being  smeared  with  a  thin  coat  of  loam 
paste  to  prevent  adhesion.  When  the  composition 
cools,  it  is  removed  by  an  oblong  spatula  of  iron,  and 


132  APPENDIX. 

ia  then  in  the  form  of  bricks  18  inches  long,  12  broad, 
4  thick,  of  the  weight  of  70  Ibs.  each. 

TIRE. 


CONSTRUCTION   OF    ORDINARY    ROADS. 

So  much  has  recently  been  written,  and  so  much 
said  in  order  to  enlighten  the  public  mind  on  the 
subject  of  roads,  that  little  remains  to  be  done  but  to 
follow  out  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  most  ap- 
proved Engineers  of  the  old  world. 

The  subject  presents  itself  in  the  following  form  : 

Laying  out  of  a  Road.  The  first  duty  of  the 
Surveyor  is  personally  to  inspect  the  proposed  line 
and  the  country  through  which  it  passes. 

It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  rule  that  the  best  line  be- 
tween the  two  given  points,  is  that  which  is  shortest, 
most  level  and  most  easy  of  execution.  This  is  vari- 
ed sometimes  by  the  consideration  of  the  cost  of  re- 
pairs, the  amount  of  traffic  to  pass  over  it,  the  natural 
obstructions,  such  as  hills,  vallies  and  rivers. 

In  laying  out  a  road  for  the  transportation  of  coun- 
try produce  merely,  due  estimates  must  be  made  of  the 
burthen  to  be  carried,  with  the  usual  power  of  draught. 

On  public  roads,  speed  may  be  considered  as  the 
principal  object  in  the  calculation  of  the  levels. 

Lines  of  road  must  not  be  made  too  tortuous,  even 
to  gain  ease  of  draught,  for  there  is  danger  to  carri- 
ages from  the  suddenness  of  their  turns,  and  the  dan- 
ger of  collision. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS,  133 

The  true  method  of  finding  out  the  proper  line  of 
road,  is  to  ascertain  and  mark  at  proper  distances  the 
straight  line :  then,  a  search  on  either  side  of  it  for  a 
better  line,  is  easy  and  practicable ;  and  may  be  made 
with  greater  economy,  in  all  respects. 

A  competent  surveyor  should  be  employed  to  run 
the  line,  furnished  with  proper  instruments  and  ma- 
terials. The  memoranda  of  the  field  book  should  be 
protracted  and  laid  down  on  a  large  scale.  Some  en- 
gineers recommend  the  adoption  of  66  yards  to  the 
inch  for  the  ground  plan,  and  30  feet  to  the  inch  for 
the  vertical  section.  On  the  latter,  should  be  marked 
the  horizontal  distances  in  miles,  and  the  vertical 
heights  in  feet. 

Calculations  should  be  made  of  the  cubic  yards  of 
earth  to  be  removed :  the  grades  should  be  carefully 
adjusted;  the  strata  examined,  and  the  character  of 
the  materials  at  hand  for  the  work, 

According  to  Stevenson,  and  we  believe  to  all 
the  most  scientific  road  engineers,  a  level  straight 
road  is  decidedly  the  best.  He  says,  "in  an  uphill 
draught,  a  carriage  may  be  conceived  as  in  a  state  of 
being  continually  lifted  by  increments  proportional  to 
its  use  or  progress  upon  the  road.  Every  one  knows 
that  on  a  stage  of  twelve  miles,  the  post-boy  generally 
saves,  as  it  is  termed,  at  least  half  an  hour,  upon  tho 
level  road ;  because  on  it  he  never  requires  to  slacken 
his  pace,  as  in  going  uphill.  Now,  if  he,  or  his  com- 
pany, would  agree  to  take  the  same  time  to  the  level 
road,  that  they  are  obliged  to  take  on  the  undulating 
one,  the  post-master  would  find  no  difficulty  in  deter- 


134  APPENDIX. 

mining  which  side  of  the  argument  was  in  favor  of 
his  cattle.  With  regard  to  the  fatigues  or  ease  of  the 
horses,  Mr.  Stevenson  upon  one  occasion  submitted 
the  subject  to  the  consideration  of  a  medical  friend, 
(Dr.  John  Barclay  of  Edinburgh,  no  less  eminent  for 
his  knowledge,  than  successful  as  a  teacher  of  the 
science  of  comparative  anatomy,)  when  the  Doctor 
made  the  following  answer : — { My  acquaintance 
with  the  muscles,  by  no  means  enables  me  to  explain 
how  a  horse  should  be  more  fatigued  by  travelling  on 
a  road  uniformly  level,  than  by  travelling  over  a  like 
space  upon  one  that  crosses  heights  and  hollows ;  but 
it  is  denionstrably  a  false  idea,  that  muscles  can  al- 
ternately rest,  and  come  into  motion,  in  cases  of  this 
kind.  The  daily  practice  of  ascending  heights,  it  has 
been  said,  gives  the  animal  wind,  and  enlarges  his 
chest,  It  may  also,  with  equal  truth,  be  affirmed,  that 
many  horses  lose  their  wind  under  this  sort  of  train- 
ing, and  irrecoverably  suffer  from  imprudent  attempts 
to  induce  such  a  habit.'  In  short,  the  Doctor  ascribes 
'much  to  prejudice  originating  with  the  man,  con- 
tinually in  quest  of  variety,  rather  than  the  horse, 
who,  consulting  only  his  own  ease,  seems  quite  un- 
conscious of  Hogarth's  Line  of  Beauty.' " — Report  on 
the  Edinburgh  Railway, 

A  dry  foundation,  and  clearing  the  road  from 
water,  are  two  important  objects,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Walker,  (Minutes  of  evidence  before  a  Commit- 
tee of  the  House  of  Commons,  1819,)  ought  to  be  kept 
in  view,  in  lining  out  roads,  «  For  obtaining  the  first 
of  these  objects,  it  is  essential  that  the  line  for  the  road 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  135 

be  taken  so  that  the  foundation  can  be  kept  dry,  either 
by  avoiding  low  ground,  by  raising  the  surface  of  the 
road  above  the  level  of  the  ground  on  each  side  of  it, 
or  by  drawing  off  the  water  by  means  of  side  drains. 
The  other  object,  viz.  that  of  clearing  the  road  of  wa- 
ter, is  best  secured  by  selecting  a  course  for  the  road 
which  is  not  horizontally  level ;  so  that  the  surface  of 
the  road  may,  in  its  longitudinal  section,  form  in  some 
degree,  an  inclined  plane :  and  when  this  cannot  be 
obtained,  owing  to  the  extreme  flatness  of  the  country, 
an  artificial  inclination  may  generally  be  made. — 
When  a  road  is  so  formed,  every  wheel-track  that  is 
made,  being  in  the  line  of  the  inclination,  becomes  a 
channel  for  carrying  off  the  water  much  more  effec- 
tually than  can  be  done  by  a  curvature  in  the  cross 
section,  or  rise  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  without  the 
danger  or  other  disadvantages  which  necessarily  at- 
tend the  rounding  of  the  road  much  in  the  middle. 
I  consider  a  fall  of  about  one  inch  and  a  half  in  ten 
feet,  to  be  about  a  minimum  in  this  case,  if  it  is  at- 
tainable without  a  great  deal  of  extra  expense. 

The  ascent  of  hills,  it  is  observed  by  Marshal, 
is  the  most  difficult  part  of  laying  out  roads. — 
According  to  theory  he,  says,  an  inclined  plane  of 
easy  ascent,  is  proper  ;  but  as  the  moving  power  on 
this  plane  is  "neither  purely  mechanical,  nor  in  a  suf- 
ficient degree  rational,  but  an  irregular  compound  of 
these  two  qualities,  the  nature  and  habits  of  this  pow- 
er" require  a  varied  inclined  plane,  or  one  not  a  uni- 
form descent,  but  with  levels  or  other  proper  places  of 
rest.  According  to  the  road  act,  this  ascent  or  de- 


136  APPENDIX. 

scent  should  not  exceed  the  rate  or  proportion  of  one 
foot  in  height  to  thirty-five  feet  of  the  length  thereof, 
if  the  same  be  practicable,  without  causing  a  great  in- 
crease of  distance. 

All  crossings,  intersections^  and  abuttings  of 
roads  should  be  made  at  right  angles,  for  the  ob- 
vious purpose  of  facilitating  the  turning  from  one  road 
to  the  other,  or  the  more  speedily  crossing.  Where 
roads  cross  each  other  obliquely,  or  where  one  road 
abuts  on  another  at  an  acute  angle,  turning  in  or 
crossing  can  only  be  conveniently  performed  in  one 
direction. 

In  laying  out  a  road  over  a  hill  or  mountain 
of  angular  figure  and  considerable  height,  much 
practical  skill,  as  well  as  science,  is  requisite.  In  or- 
der to  preserve  a  moderate  inclination,  or  such  a  one 
as  will  admit  of  the  descent  of  carriages  without  lock- 
ing the  wheels,  a  much  longer  line  will  be  required 
than  the  arc  of  the  mountains.  In  reaching  the  sum- 
mit or  the  highest  part  to  be  passed  over,  the  line 
must  be  extended  by  winding  or  zig-zaging  it  along 
the  sides,  so  as  never  to  exceed  the  maximum  degree 
of  steepness.  This  may  occasion  a  very  awkward 
appearance  in  a  ground  plan,  but  it  is  unavoidable  in 
immense  works. 

In  laying  out  a  road  towards  a  river,  stream, 
ravine,  or  any  place  requiring  a  bridge  or  embank- 
ment, an  obvious  advantage  results  from  approaching 
them  at  right  angles ;  and  the  same  will  apply  in  re- 
gard to  any  part  requiring  tunnelling  or  crossing  by 
an  aqueduct,  &c. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  137 

The  width  is  obviously  deter minable  by  .the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  traffic :  every  road  should  be 
made  sufficiently  broad  to  admit  two  of  the  largest 
sized  carriages  which  are  in  use  in  the  country  or  dis- 
trict to  pass  each  other ;  and  highways,  and  roads  near 
towns,  should  be  made  wider  in  proportion  to  their 
use.  The  maximum  and  minimum  can  only  be  de- 
termined by  experience ;  sixty  feet  is  the  common  and 
legal  width  of  a  turnpike-road  in  Britain,  and  this  in- 
cludes the  footpath. 

The  strength  of  a  road  depends  on  the  nature 
of  the  material  of  which  it  is  formed,  and  of  the 
basis  on  which  it  is  placed.  A  plate  of  iron  or  stone, 
of  the  road's  width,  placed  on  a  compact  dry  soil, 
would  comprise  everything  in  point  of  strength ;  but 
as  it  is  impracticable  to  employ  plates  of  iron  or  stone 
of  such  a  size  to  any  extent,  recourse  is  had  to  a  stra- 
tum of  small  stones  or  gravel.  The  great  art,  there- 
fore, is  to  prepare  this  stratum,  and  place  it  on  the 
basis  of  the  road,  as  that  the  effect  may  come  as  near 
as  possible  to  a  solid  plate  of  material.  To  accom- 
plish this,  the  stones  or  gravel  should  be  broken  into 
small  angular  fragments,  and  after  being  laid  down  of 
such  a  thickness  as  experience  has  determined  to  be 
of  sufficient  strength  and  durability,  the  whole  should 
be  so  powerfully  compressed  by  a  roller,  as  to  render  it 
one  compact  body,  capable  of  resisting  the  impression 
of  the  feet  of  animals  and  the  wheels  of  carriages  in 
a  great  degree,  and  impermeable  by  surface  water. — 
But  the  base  of  the  road  may  not  always  be  firm  and 
compressed ;  in  this  case,  it  is  to  be  rendered  so  by 
18 


138  APPENDIX. 

drainage,  artificial  pressure,  and  perhaps  in  some 
cases  by  other  means. 

The  durability  of  a  road,  as  far  as  it  depends  on 
the  original  formation,  will  be  in  proportion  to  the 
solidity  of  its  basis ;  the  hardness  of  the  material  of 
which  the  surface-stratum  is  formed ;  its  thickness, 
and  the  size  and  form  of  the  stones  which  compose  it. 
The  form  and  size  of  the  stones  which  compose  the 
surface-stratum,  have  a  powerful  influence  on  a  road's 
durability.  If  their  form  is  roundish,  it  is  evident 
they  will  not  bind  into  a  compact  stratum ;  if  they  are 
large,  whether  the  form  be  round  or  angular,  the  stra- 
tum cannot  be  solid ;  and  if  they  are  of  mixed  sizes  and 
shapes,  though  a  very  strong  and  solid  stratum  maybe 
formed  at  first,  yet  the  wheels  of  carriages  and  the  feet 
of  animals  operating  with  unequal  eifect  on  the  small 
and  large  stones,  would  soon  derange  the  solidity  of 
the  stratum  to  a  certain  depth;  and,  consequently,  by 
admitting  rain  and  frost  to  penetrate  into  it,  accelerate 
its  decay.  A  constant  state  of  moisture,  even  without 
any  derangement  of  surface,  contributes  to  the  wear- 
ing of  roads  by  friction :  hence  one  requisite  to  dura- 
bility is  a  free  exposure  to  the  sun  and  air,  by  keeping 
low  the  side  fences ;  and  another  is  keeping  a  road 
clear  of  mud  and  dust — the  first  of  which  acts  as  a 
sponge  in  retaining  water,  and  the  second  increases 
the  draught  of  animals,  and  of  course  their  action  on 
the  road.  Both  the  strength  and  durability  of  a  road 
will  be  greater  when  the  plate  or  surface-stratum  of 
metals  is  flat  or  nearly  so,  than  when  it  is  rounded  on 
the  upper  surface :  first,  because  no  animal  can  stand 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  139 

upright  on  such  a  road  with  a  regular  bearing  on  the 
soles  of  its  feet ;  and,  secondly,  because  no  wheeled 
carriage  can  have  a  regular  bearing,  except  on  the 
middle  or  crown  of  the  road.  The  consequence  of 
both  these  states  is  the  breaking  of  the  surface  of  the 
plate  into  holes  from  the  edges  of  horses'  feet,  or  ruts 
from  the  plough-like  effect  of  wheels  on  the  lower  side 
•*of  the  road,  or  the  reiterated  operation  of  those  which 
pass  along  the  centre. 

The  smoothness  of  a  road  depends  on  the  size 
of  the  stones,  and  on  their  compression,  either  by 
original  rolling  or  the  continued  pressure  of  wheels. 
The  continued  smoothness  of  a  road  during  its  wear 
depends  on  small  stones  being  used  in  every  part  of 
the  stratum :  for  if  the  lower  part  of  it,  as  is  generally 
the  case  in  the  old  style  of  forming  roads,  consists  of 
larger  stones,  as  soon  as  it  is  penetrated  by  the  wheels 
or  water  from  above,  these  stones  will  work  up  and 
produce  a  road  full  of  holes  and  covered  with  loose 
stones. 

The  wear  or  decay  of  roads  takes  place  in  con- 
sequence of  the  friction,  leverage,  pressure,  grind- 
ing, and  incision  of  animals  and  machines,  and  the 
various  effects  of  water  and  the  weather. 


SUBJECT    II. 
McADAM'S  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  ROAD-MAKING. 

McAdam  agrees  with  other  engineers  that  a 
good  road  may  be  considered  as  an  artificial  flooring, 


140  APPENDIX. 

forming  a  strong,  solid,  smooth- surfaced  stratum,  suf- 
ficiently flat  to  admit  of  carriages  standing  upright  on 
any  part  of  it,  capable  of  carrying  a  great  weight,  and 
presenting  no  impediment  to  the  animals  or  machines 
which  pass  along  it.  In  forming  this  flooring,  Mc- 
Adam  has  gone  one  step  beyond  his  predecessors,  in 
breaking  the  stone  to  a  smaller  size  than  was  before 
practiced,  and  in  forming  the  entire  stratum  of  this 
small-sized  stone.  By  the  former  practice  a  basement 
of  large  stones  is  first  laid;  then  stones  a  degree 
smaller ;  and,  lastly,  the  least  size  on  the  surface.  It 
is  in  this  point  of  making  use  of  one  small  size  of 
stones  throughout  the  stratum,  that  the  originality  of 
McAdam's  plan  consists,  unless  we  add  also  his  asser- 
tion, "that  all  the  roads  in  the  kingdom  may  be  made 
smooth  and  solid  in  an  equal  degree,  and  to  continue 
so  at  all  seasons  of  the  year."  It  is  doubted  by  some, 
whether  this  would  be  the  case  in  the  northern  dis- 
tricts at  the  breaking  up  of  the  frosts,  and  especially 
in  the  case  of  roads  not  much  in  use,  and  consequent- 
ly consisting  of  a  stratum  less  consolidated,  and  more 
penetrable  by  water.  McAdam,  probably,  has  much 
frequented  public  roads  in  view.  "  The  durability  of 
these,"  he  says,  "will,  of  course  depend  on  the 
strength  of  the  materials  of  which  they  may  be  com- 
posed ;  but  they  will  all  be  good  while  they  last ;  and 
the  only  question  that  can  arise  respecting  the  kind 
of  materials  is  one  of  duration  and  expense,  but  never 
of  the  immediate  condition  of  the  roads."  (Remarks 
on  Roads,  <£«c.  p.  11.)  The  following  observation  of 
Marshal  is  worthy  of  remark,  as  tending  to  confirm, 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  141 

to  a  certain  extent,  the  doctrine  of  McAdam : — « It 
may  seem  needless  to  repeat,  that  the  surface  of  a  road 
which  is  formed  of  well  broken  stones,  binding  gravel, 
or  other  firmly  cohesive  materials,  and  which  is  much 
used,  presently  becomes  repellant  of  the  water  which 
falls  upon  it ;  no  matter  as  to  the  basis  on  which  they 
are  deposited,  provided  it  is  sound  and  firm  enough 
to  support  them." 

McAdam's  theory  of  road-making  may  be  com- 
prised in  the  following  quotation  from  his  Report 
to  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  (vol.  vi.  p.  46): — 
"Roads  can  never  be  rendered  perfectly  secure  until 
the  following  principles  be  fully  understood,  admit- 
ted, and  acted  upon :  namely,  that  it  is  the  native  soil 
which  really  supports  the  weight  of  traffic ;  that  while 
it  is  preserved  in  a  dry  state,  it  will  carry  any  weight 
without  sinking,  and  that  it  does,  in  fact,  carry  the 
road  and  the  carriages  also ;  that  this  native  soil  must 
previously  be  made  quite  dry,  and  a  covering  impen- 
etrable to  rain  must  then  be  placed  over  it,  to  preserve 
it  in  that  dry  state ;  that  the  thickness  of  a  road  should 
only  be  regulated  by  the  quantity  of  material  neces- 
sary to  form  such  impervious  covering,  and  never  by 
any  reference  to  its  own  power  of  carrying  weight. — 
There  are  some  exceptions  to  this  rule ;  a  road  of 
good  naturally  binding  gravel  may  be  laid  on  a  sub- 
bed of  bog  earth,  which,  from  its  tenacity,  will  carry 
all  kinds  of  carriages  for  many  years." 

The  erroneous  opinion  so  long  acted  upon, 
and  so  tenaciously  adliered  to,  that  by  placing  a 
large  quantity  of  stone  under  the  roads,  a  remedy  will 


142  APPENDIX. 

be  found  for  the  sinking  into  wet  clay  or  other  soft 
soils ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  a  road  may  be  made 
sufficiently  strong,  artificially ',  to  carry  heavy  carri- 
ages, though  the  sub-soil  be  in  a  wet  state,  and  by 
such  means  to  avert  the  inconveniences  of  the  natural 
soil  receiving  water  from  rain  or  other  causes  has 
produced  most  of  the  defects  of  the  roads  of  Great 
Britain.  At  one  time,  McAdam  had  formed  the  opin- 
ion that  this  practice  was  only  a  useless  expense ;  but 
experience  has  convinced  him  that  it  is  likewise  posi- 
tively injurious. 

If  strata  of  stone  of  various  sizes  be  placed  as  a 
road,  it  is  well  known  to  every  skilful  and  observant 
road-maker,  that  the  largest  stones  will  constantly 
work  up  by  the  shaking  and  pressure  of  the  traffic ; 
and  that  the  only  mode  of  keeping  the  stones  of  a  road 
from  motion  is,  to  use  materials  of  a  uniform  size 
from  the  bottom.  In  roads  made  upon  large  stones  as 
a  foundation,  the  perpetual  motion,  or  change  of  po- 
sition of  the  materials,  keeps  open  many  apertures, 
through  which  the  water  passes. 

Roads  placed  upon  a  hard  bottom,  it  has  also  been 
found,  wear  away  more  quickly  than  those  which 
are  placed  upon  a  soft  soil.  This  has  been  apparent 
upon  roads  where  motives  of  economy  or  other  causes 
have  prevented  the  road  being  lifted  to  the  bottom  at 
once ;  the  wear  has  always  been  found  to  diminish, 
as  soon  as  it  was  possible  to  remove  the  hard  founda- 
tion. It  is  a  known  fact,  that  a  road  lasts  much  long- 
er over  a  morass,  than  when  made  over  a  rock.  The 
evidence  produced  before  the  committee  of  the  House 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  143 

of  Commons,  showed  the  comparison  on  the  road  be- 
tween Bristol  and  Bridgwater,  to  be  as  five  to  seven 
in  favor  of  the  wearing  on  the  morass,  where  the  road 
is  laid  on  the  naked  surface  of  the  soil,  against  a  part 
of  the  same  road  made  over  rocky  ground. 

The  common  practice,  on  the  formation  of  a  new 
road,  is,  to  dig  a  trench  below  the  surface  of  the 
ground  adjoining,  and  in  this  trench  to  deposite  a 
quantity  of  large  stones ;  after  this,  a  second  quantity 
of  stone,  broken  smaller,  generally  to  about  seven  or 
eight  pounds  weight :  these  previous  beds  of  stone  are 
called  the  bottoming  of  the  road,  and  are  of  various 
thickness,  according  to  the  caprice  of  the  maker,  and 
generally  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  money  placed 
at  his  disposal.  On  some  new  roads,  made  in  Scot- 
land in  the  summer  of  1819,  the  thickness  exceeded 
three  feet.  That  which  is  properly  called  the  road  is 
there  placed  on  the  bottoming,  by  putting  large  quanti- 
ties of  broken  stone  or  gravel,  generally  a  foot  or  eigh- 
teen inches  thick,  at  once  upon  it.  Were  the  materials 
of  which  the  road  itself  is  composed  properly  selected, 
prepared,  and  laid,  some  of  the  inconveniences  of  this 
system  might  be  avoided  ;  but  in  the  careless  way  in 
which  this  service  is  generally  performed,  the  road  is 
as  open  as  a  sieve,  to  receive  the  water,  which  pene- 
trating through  the  whole  mass,  is  received  and  re- 
tained in  the  trench,  whence  the  road  is  liable  to  give 
way  in  all  changes  of  weather. 

A  road  formed  on  such  principles,  has  never  effect- 
ually answered  the  purpose  which  the  road-maker 
should  constantly  have  in  view;  namely,  to  make  a 


144  APPENDIX. 

secure  level  flooring,  over  which  carriages  may  pass 
with  safety  and  equal  expedition  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year. 

The  first  operation  in  making  a  road  should  be 
the  reverse  of  digging  a  trench.  The  road  should 
not  be  sunk  below,  but  rather  raised  above,  the  ordi- 
nary level  of  the  adjacent  ground ;  care  should  be 
taken,  at  any  rate,  that  there  be  a  sufficient  fall  to  take 
off  the  water,  so  that  it  should  always  be  some  inches 
below  the  level  of  the  ground  upon  which  the  road  is 
intended  to  be  placed  :  this  must  be  done,  either  by 
making  drains  to  lower  the  ground ;  or  if  that  be  not 
practicable,  from  the  nature  of  the  country,  then  the 
soil  upon  which  the  road  is  proposed  to  be  laid  must 
be  raised  by  addition,  so  as  to  be  some  inches  above 
the  level  of  the  water. 

Having  secured  the  soil  from  wider-water,  the 
road-maker  is  next  to  secure  it  from  rain  water,  by  a 
solid  road  made  of  clean  dry  stone  or  flint,  so  selected, 
prepared,  and  laid,  as  to  be  perfectly  impervious  to 
water ;  and  this  cannot  be  effected  unless  the  greatest 
care  be  taken  that  no  earth,  clay,  chalk,  or  other  mat- 
ter, that  will  hold  or  conduct  water,  be  mixed  with 
the  broken  stone ;  which  must  be  so  prepared  and 
laid,  as  to  unite  with  its  own  angles  into  a  firm,  com- 
pact, impenetrable  body. 

The  thickness  of  such  road  is  immaterial,  as  to  its 
strength  for  carrying  weight ;  this  object  is  already 
obtained  by  providing  a  dry  surface,  over  which  the 
road  is  to  be  placed  as  a  covering  or  roof,  to  preserve 
it  in  that  state ;  experience  having  shown,  that  if  wa- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  145 

ter  passes  through  a  road,  and  fills  the  native  soil,  the 
road,  whatever  may  be  its  thickness,  loses  its  support, 
and  goes  to  pieces.  In  consequence  of  an  alteration 
in  the  line  of  thelfiirnpike  road,  near  Rownham  Fer- 
ry, in  the  parish  of  Ashton,  near  Bristol,  it  has  been 
necessary  to  remove  the  old  road.  This  road  was 
lifted  and  re-laid  very  skilfully  in  1806 ;  since  which 
time,  it  has  been  in  contemplation  to  change  the  line, 
and  consequently  it  has  been  suffered  to  wear  very 
thin.  Aj.  present  it  is  not  above  three  inches  thick  in 
most  places,  and  in  none  more  than  four;  yet  on  re- 
moving the  road,  it  was  found  that  no  water  had  pen- 
etrated, nor  had  the  frost  affected  it  during  the  winter 
preceding,  and  the  natural  earth  beneath  the  road  was 
found  perfectly  dry. 

Improvement  of  Roads,  continues  McAdam,  "  up- 
on the  principle  I  have  endeavored  to  explain,  has 
been  rapidly  extended  during  the  last  four  years.  It 
has  been  carried  into  effect  on  various  roads,  and  with 
every  variety  of  material,  in  seventeen  different  coun- 
ties. These  roads  being  so  constructed  as  to  exclude 
water,  consequently  none  of  them  broke  during  the 
late  severe  winter,  (1819 — 20);  there  was  no  inter- 
ruption to  travelling,  nOr  any  additional  expense  by 
the  post-office  in  conveying  the  mails  over  them,  to 
the  extent  of  upwards  of  one  thousand  miles  of  road; 

On  McAdam's  theory  the  only  practical  road-ma- 
ker who  has  published  his  opinion  is  Paterson  of 
Montrose.  He  says,  (Letters  and  Communications, 
fyc.  1822),  "These  certainly  ought  to  be  considered 
as  the  grand  first  principles  of  road-making."  He 
commends  McAdam's  reasoning  on  the  principles ; 
19 


146  APPENDIX. 

but  objects^,  as  we  think  with  reason,  to  his  drainage 
of  three  or  four  inches,  as  being  insufficient.  He  adds, 
however,  that  though  he  considers  McAdam's  system 
as  erroneous  and  defective  in  drajHng  and  preparing 
the  road  for  the  materials,  yet,  in  -regard  to  the  mate- 
rials themselves,  the  method  of  preparing  and  putting 
them  on,  and  keeping  the  road  free  from  ruts  by  con- 
stant attention,  has  his  entire  approbation.  These 
principles,  however,  he  adds,  "are  not  new ;  but  have 
been  acted  upon  before.  In  regard  to  small  breaking, 
he  certainly  has  had  the  merit  of  carrying  that  mode 
to  greater  extent  than  any  other  individual  that  I  have 
heard  of;  and  the  beneficial  effects  arising  from  it 
have  consequently  been  more  extensively  seen  and 
experienced."  (Letters  on  Road- Making,  p.  49.) 

One  of  the  most  important  and  most  obviously  cor- 
rect of  these  principles,  is  that  which  requires  a  road 
to  be  made  of  such  a  degree  of  substance,  as  shall  be 
in  a  due  proportion  to  the  weight  and  number  of  the 
carriages  that  are  to  travel  over  it. 

But  although  this  is,  in  appearance,  a  self-evident 
proposition,  in  practice  no  rule  is  so  universally  vio- 
lated. 

Let  the  construction  of  any  turnpike  road,  of  one 
commonly  considered  as  among  the  best,  be  properly 
examined ;  that  is,  let  measure  be  taken  of  the  quan- 
tity of  hard-road  materials  that  compose  the  crust  of 
the  road  over  the  subsoil,  and  it  will  almost  universal- 
ly be  found  that  it  consists  of  only  from  three  to  five, 
or  six  inches  in  thickness.  Whereas,  instead  of  this 
weak  and  defective  system  of  road-making,  it  may  be 
laid  down  as  a  general  rule,  that  on  every  main  road 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  147 

where  numerous  heavy  waggons  and  heavy  loaded 
stage  coaches  are  constantly  travelling,  the  proper 
degree  of  strength  which  such  a  road  ought  to  have 
cannot  be  obtained  except  by  forming  a  regular  foun- 
dation constructed  with  large  stones,  set  as  a  rough 
pavement,  with  a  coating  of  at  least  six  inches  of 
broken  stone  of  the  hardest  kind  laid  upon  it ;  and 
further,  that  in  all  cases  where  the  subsoil  is  elastic, 
it  is  necessary,  before  the  foundation  is  laid  on,  that 
this  elastic  subsoil  should  be  rendered  non-elastic  by 
every  sort  of  contrivance ;  such,  amongst  others,  for 
instance,  as  perfect  drainage,  and  laying  a  high  em- 
bankment of  earth  upon  the  elastic  soil,  to  compress  it. 

The  right  understanding  of  this  principle  of  road- 
making,  which  requires  roads  to  be  constructed  with 
four  or  five  times  a  greater  body  or  depth  of  materials 
than  is  commonly  given  to  them,  is  of  such  great  im- 
portance, that  it  is  requisite  to  illustrate  and  establish 
the  grounds  on  which  it  rests ;  first,  by  reference  to 
the  laws  of  science  concerning  moving  bodies,  and 
secondly,  by  reference  to  experiments,  which  accu- 
rately prove  the  force  of  traction  on  different  kinds  of 
roads. 

As  a  carriage  for  conveying  goods  or  passengers 
when  put  in  action  becomes  a  moving  body,  in  the 
language  of  science,  the  question  to  be  examined  and 
decided  is,  how  a  carriage,  when  once  propelled,  can 
be  kept  moving  onwards  with  the  least  possible  quan- 
tity of  labor  to  horses,  or  of  force  of  traction? 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  has  laid  it  down  as  a  general 
principle  of  science,  that  a  body,  when  once  set  in 
motion,  will  continue  to  move  uniformly  forward  in 


148  APPENDIX. 

a  straight  line  by  its  momentum,  until  it  be  stopped  by 
the  action  of  some  external  force.  This  proposition 
is  admitted  and  adopted  by  all  natural  philosophers  as 
being  perfectly  true,  and  therefore,  in  order  to  apply 
it  to  roads,  it  is  necessary  to  enquire  what  kinds  of 
external  force  act  in  a  manner  to  diminish  and  destroy 
the  momentum  of  carriages  passing  over  them.  With 
respect  to  these  external  forces,  the  general  doctrine 
is,  that  they  consist  of  1st,  collision :  2d,  friction ;  3d, 
gravity  ;  and  4th,  air. 

1st,  The  effect  of  collision  is  very  great  in  dimin- 
ishing the  momentum  of  carriages  ;  it  is  occasioned 
by  and  is  in  proportion  to  the  hard  protuberances  and 
other  inequalities  on  the  surface  of  a  road.  These 
occasion,  by  the  resistance  which  they  make  to  the 
wheels,  jolts  and  shocks,  which  waste  the  power  of 
draught,  and  considerably  check  the  forward  motion 
of  a  carriage. 

2d,  Friction  has  a  very  great  influence  in  checking 
the  motion  of  a  carriage ;  for,  when  the  wheels  come 
into  contact  with  a  soft  or  elastic  surface,  the  friction 
which  takes  place  operates  powerfully  in  obstructing 
the  tendency  of  the  carriage  to  proceed  ;  the  motion 
forwards  is  immediately  retarded  and  would  soon 
cease  if  not  renewed  by  the  efforts  of  the  horses. 
The  "  resistance,"  Professor  Leslie  says,  "  which  fric- 
tion occasions,  partakes  of  the  nature  of  the  resistance 
of  fluids  ;  it  consists  of  the  consumption  of  the  mov- 
ing force,  or  of  the  horses'  labor,  accasioned  by  the 
soft  surface  of  the  road,  and  the  continually  depress- 
ing of  the  spongy  and  elastic  sub-strata  of  the 
road." 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  149 

An  ivory  ball,  set  in  motion  with  a  certain  velocity 
over  a  Turkey  carpet,  will  suffer  a  visible  relaxation 
of  its  course ;  but,  with  the  same  impelling  force,  it 
will  advance  further  if  rolled  over  a  superfine  cloth  ; 
still  further  over  smooth  oaken  planks :  and  it  will 
scarcely  seem  to  abate  its  velocity  over  a  sheet  of 
pure  ice. 

This  short  explanation  of  the  nature  and  effects  of 
collision  and  friction  is  sufficient  to  show,  that  smooth- 
ness and  hardness  are  the  chief  qualities  to  be  secur- 
ed in  constructing  a  road.  But  perfect  smoothness 
cannot  be  obtained  without  first  securing  perfect  hard- 
ness, and  therefore  the  business  of  making  a  good 
road  may  be  said  to  resolve  itself  into  that  of  securing 
perfect  hardness. 

With  the  view  of  taking  the  right  course  for  secur- 
ing this  object,  the  first  thing  a  road  trustee  or  engi- 
neer should  do,  is  to  form  a  correct  notion  of  what 
hardness  is  ;  because  the  common  habit  of  overlook- 
ing this  circumstance  has  been  the  source  of  great 
error  in  forming  opinions  upon  the  qualities  of  differ- 
ent kinds  of  roads. 

Gravel  roads,  for  instance,  to  which  an  appear- 
ance of  smoothness  is  given  by  incurring  a  vast  ex- 
pense in  scraping  them,  and  patching  them  with  thin 
layers  of  very  small  gravel,  are  very  commonly  de- 
clared to  be  perfect,  and  unequalled  by  any  other 
kind  of  road.  But  if  the  best  gravel  road  be  com- 
pared with  one  properly  constructed  with  stone  ma- 
terials, the  hardness  of  the  former  will  be  found  to 
be  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  the  latter,  and  the  error 


150  APPENDIX. 

of  the  advocates  of  smooth-looking  gravel  roads  will 
be  immediately  made  manifest. 

By  referring  to  works  of  science,  it  will  be  seen 
that  hardness  is  defined  to  be  that  property  of  a  body 
by  which  it  resists  the  impression  of  other  bodies 
which  impinge  upon  it ;  and  the  degree  of  hardness 
is  measured  by  the  quantity  of  this  resistance.  If 
the  resistance  be  so  complete  as  to  render  it  totally 
incapable  of  any  impression,  then  a  body  is  said  to 
be  perfectly  hard. 

Now  this  hardness  is  the  hardness  which  a  road 
ought  to  have  as  far  as  it  is  practicable  to  produce  it, 
and  it  is  the  chief  business  of  a  scientific  road  maker 
to  do  every  thing  necessary  to  produce  it.  For  this 
purpose,  when  making  a  new  road,  he  should  first 
select  or  establish  a  substratum  of  soil  or  earth  that 
is  not  spongy  or  elastic,  for  the  bed  of  the  road ;  and 
then  he  should  so  dispose  the  materials  of  which  the 
crust  of  the  road  is  to  consist,  as  to  form  a  body  suf- 
ficiently strong  to  oppose  the  greatest  possible  quan- 
ity  of  resistance  to  the  weight  of  heavy  carriages 
passing  over  it. 

That  an  elastic  subsoil  is  unfit  for  a  road  is  evi- 
dent from  the  nature  of  the  resistance  occasioned  by 
friction,  as  above  described  by  professor  Leslie,  and 
from  the  terms  of  the  definition  of  hardness;  for 
however  strong  the  crust  of  materials  may  be  which 
is  formed  over  such  a  subsoil,  it  will  not  be  capable 
of  opposing  a  perfect  resistance  to  a  heavy  moving 
body.  The  moving  body  will  sink  more  or  less  in 
proportion  as  the  subsoil  is  elastic,  and  the  hardness 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  151 

of  the  road  will  be  imperfect  in  proportion  as  this 
sinking  takes  place ;  so  that  nothing  can  be  more 
necessary,  as  a  preliminary  step  in  making  a  new 
road,  than  to  take  every  possible  precaution  to  avoid 
elastic  subsoils,  or  to  destroy  the  elasticity  as  mueh 
as  possible,  when  no  other  can  be  found. 

After  the  engineer  has  prepared  a  proper  substra- 
tum of  earth  for  the  bed  of  a  road,  he  next  must 
construct  a  crust  of  road  materials  in  such  a  man- 
ner that,  when  consolidated,  it  shall  possess  such 
degree  of  hardness  as  will  not  admit  the  wheels  of  a 
carriages  to  cut  or  sink  into  it.  For  this  purpose  it 
will  not  be  sufficient  to  lay  upon  the  prepared  bed  of 
earth  merely  a  coating  of  broken  stones,  for  the  car- 
riages passing  over  them  will  force  these  next  the 
earth  into  it,  and,  at  the  same  time  press  much 
of  the  earth  upwards  between  the  stones ;  this  will 
take  place  to  a  great  degree  in  wet  weather,  when 
the  bed  of  earth  will  be  converted  into  soft  mud  by 
water  passing  from  the  surface  of  the  road  through 
the  broken  stones,  into  the  bed  of  the  road.  In  this 
way  a  considerable  quantity  of  earth  will  be  mixed 
with  the  stone  materials  laid  on  for  forming  the  crust 
of  the  road,  and  this  mixture  will  make  it  extremely 
imperfect  as  to  hardness.  It  might  be  possible,  in 
some  measure,  to  cure  this  defect  by  laying  on  a  suc- 
cession of  coatings  of  broken  stones  ;  but  several  of 
these  will  be  necessary,  and,  after  all,  in  long  contin- 
ued wet  weather,  the  mud  will  continue  to  be  press- 
ed upwards  from  the  bottom  to  the  surface  of  the 
stones.  If  even  a  coating  of  from  sixteen  to  twenty 
inches  of  stones  be  laid  on,  it  will  produce  only  a 


152  APPENDIX. 

palliative  of  the  evil.  So  that  this  plan  of  making  a 
road  will  be  not  only  very  imperfect,  but  at  the  same 
time  very  expensive. 

Mr.  Telford's  plan,  which  has  completely  succeed- 
ed on  the  Holyhead  road,  the  Glasgow  and  Carlisle 
road,  and  several  other  roads  in  Scotland,  of  making 
a  regular  bottoming  of  rough,  close-set  pavement,  is 
a  plan  that  secures  the  greatest  degree  of  hardness 
that  can  be  given  to  a  road ;  it  is  also  attended  with 
much  less  expense  than  when  a  thick  coating  of 
broken  stones  is  used ;  for  six  inches  of  broken 
stones  is  sufficient  when  laid  oii  a  pavement,  and  the 
pavement  may  be  made  of  any  kind  of  common 
stone. 

By  laying  the  stones  in  making  the  bottoming 
with  their  broadest  face  downwards,  and  filling  up 
the  interstices  closely  with  stone  chips  well  driven  in, 
the  earthy  bed  of  the  road  cannot  be  pressed  up  so 
as  to  mix  with  the  coating  of  broken  stones.  This 
coating,  therefore,  when  consolidated  will  form  a  sol- 
id uniform  mass  of  stone,  and  be  infinitely  harder 
than  one  of  broken  stones,  when  mixed  with  the 
earth  of  the  substratum  of  the  road.  It  is  by  pro- 
ceeding in  the  way  here  recommended  that  the  fric- 
tion of  wheels  on  a  road  will  be  reduced  as  much 
as  possible. 

To  comprehend  thoroughly  the  great  importance 
of  making  a  regular  and  strong  foundation  for  a  road) 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  roads  are  structures 
that  have  to  sustain  great  weights,  and  violent  per- 
cussion ;  the  same  rules  therefore  ought  to  be  follow- 
ed in  regard  to  them  as  are  followed  in  regard  to  oth- 
er structures, 


.      .'.*     »  TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  153 

In  building  edifices  which  are  to  support  great 
weights,  whether  a  church,  a  house,  or  a  bridge,  the 
primary  and  indispensible  consideration  of  the  arch- 
itect is  to  obtain  a  permanently  firm  and  stable  foun- 
dation ;  well  knowing  that  unless  this  be  first  sub- 
stantially made,  no  future  dependence  can  be  placed 
on  the  stability  of  the  intended  superstructure :  but 
this  most  requisite  precaution  has  but  recently  been, 
attended  to  in  the  formation  of  roads,  and  only  on 
those  roads  in  Scotland,  and  between  London  and 
Holyhead,  which  have  been  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Telford. 

If  the  foundation  of  a  road  be  not  sufficient  and 
equal  to  the  pressure  it  has  to  sustain,  the  whole  fab- 
ric, though  in  other  respects  ever  so  well  constructed, 
must  fail  in  permanent  stability,  and  the  hardness  of 
it  will  be  imperfect  from  its  elasticity. 


DRAINAGE. 

In  properly  constructing  this  part  of  the  business 
of  road-making,  great  care  is  necessary.  The  ut- 
most judgment  of  the  skilful  surveyor  will  be  called 
into  action  to  enable  him  to  make  the  best  use  of  the 
natural  facilities  of  the  country,  and  to  overcome  the 
obstructions  that  he  will  sometimes  meet  with.  In 
passing  over  flat  land,  open  main  drains,  cut  on  the 
field  side  of  the  fences,  must  communicate  with  the 
natural  watercourses  of  the  country  ;  they  should  be 
three  feet  deep  below  the  level  of  the  bed  of  the  road, 
one  foot  wide  at  bottom,  and  five  feet  wide  at  top. 
20 


154  APPENDIX. 

If  springs  rise  in  the  site  of  the  road,  or  in  the  slopes 
of  deep  cuttings,  stone  or  tile  drains  should  be  mado 
into  them.  In  cutting,  small  drains  technically  call- 
ed mitre  drains,  should  be  formed  ;  the  angle,  depend- 
ing on  the  inclination  of  the  road,  should  not  exceed 
one  inch  in  100.  They  should  be  9  inches  wide  at 
bottom,  12  inches  at  top,  and  10  inches  deep.  Accor- 
ding to  the  inclinations  of  a  road,  and  from  the  form 
and  wetness  of  the  country,  cross  drains  of  good  ma- 
sonry should  be  built  under  the  road,  having  their  ex- 
tremities carried  under  the  road  fences.  One  of  these 
should  be  built  wherever  water  would  lie ;  and  when 
the  road  passes  along  the  slope  of  a  hill,  great  num- 
bers are  necessary  to  carry  off  the  water  that  collects 
in  the  channel  of  the  road  on  the  side  next  the  high 
ground.  Various  descriptions  of  drains  are  made  in 
every  situation  where  necessary,  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  surface  of  the  road  secured  by  giving  it  a 
proper  convexity  in  its  cross  section. 

The  proper  convex  form  is  particularly  essential 
on  hills,  in  order  that  the  water  may  have  a  tendency 
to  fall  from  the  centre  to  the  sides.  The  side  chan- 
nels, and  all  the  road  drains  should  be  repaired  at 
the  approach  and  at  the  end  of  winter,  and  daily 
attention  given  to  their  being  free  from  obstruction. 
If  roads,  by  a  proper  system  of  drainage,  be  kept 
dry,  they  will  be  maintained  in  a  good  state,  and  at 
proportionally  less  expense. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  155 


When  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  deep  cutting 
through  a  hill,  the  slopes  of  the  banks  should  never 
be  less,  except  in  passing  through  stone,  than  two  feet 
horizontal  to  one  foot  perpendicular  ;  for  though  sev- 
eral kinds  of  earth  will  stand  at  steeper  inclinations,  a 
slope  of  two  to  one  is  necessary  for  admitting  the 
sun  and  wind  to  reach  the  road.  The  whole  of  the 
green  sod  and  fertile  soil  on  the  surface  of  the  land 
cut  through,  should  be  carefully  collected  and  reser- 
ved, in  order  to  be  laid  on  the  slopes  immediately  af- 
ter they  are  formed.  If  enough  of  these  cannot  be 
procured,  the  slopes  should  be  strewed  with  mould, 
and  sown  with  hay-seeds.  When  stones  can  be  got, 
the  slopes  should  be  supported  by  a  wall  raised  two 
or  three  feet  high,  at  the  bottom  of  them.  These 
walls  prevent  the  earth  from  falling  from  the  slopes 
into  the  side  chanels  of  the  road,  and  add  very  much 
to  the  finished  and  workmanlike  appearance  of  a 
road.  It  is  sometimes  advisable,  particularly  if  an 
additional  quantity  of  earth  be  wanted  for  an  em- 
bankment, to  make  the  slopes  through  the  cuttings 
on  the  south  side  of  a  road  of  an  inclination  of  three 
horizontal  to  one  perpendicular,  in  order  to  secure 
the  great  advantage  of  allowing  the  sun  and  wind  to 
reach  more  freely  the  surface  of  the  road.  In  dis- 
tricts of  country  where  stones  abound,  expense  in 
moving  earth  and  purchasing  land  may  be  avoided, 
by  building  retaining  walls,  and  filling  between  them 
with  earth.  In  rocky  and  rugged  countries,  this  is 
generally  the  best  way  of  obtaining  the  prescribed 


156  APPENDIX. 

inclinations.  In  forming  a  road  along  the  face  of  a 
precipice,  a  wall  must  be  built  to  support  it.  The 
difficulty  of  forming  a  road  in  such  a  place,  is  not  so 
great  as  may  be  imagined,  for  the  face  of  a  precipice 
is  seldom  vertical,  and  if  the  inclination  should  be  half 
a  foot  vertical  to  one  foot  horizontal,  this  will  admit 
of  a  retaining  wall  being  built.  By  building  such  a 
wall,  say  30  feet  high,  and  cutting  10  feet  at  that 
height  into  the  rock,  and  filling  up  the  space  within 
the  wall,  a  road  of  sufficient  breadth  will  be  obtained. 
In  forming  the  bed  for  the  road,  material  care  should 
be  taken,  except  where  cutting  into  the  surface  is 
wholly  unavoidable,  in  order  to  obtain  the  proper 
longitudinal  inclinations,  to  elevate  the  bed  with 
earth,  two  feet  at  least,  above  the  natural  surface  of 
the  adjoining  ground :  by  following  this  course,  the 
road  will  not  be  affected  by  water  running  under  or 
soaking  into  it  from  the  adjoining  land.  In  arrang- 
ing the  inclinations,  they  should  be  obtained  by  em- 
banking, where  that  is  practicable,  in  preference  to 
cutting.  Almost  all  old  roads  across  flat  and  wet 
land  are  sunk  below  the  adjacent  fields :  this  has  ari- 
sen from  the  continued  wearing  of  them,  and  carry- 
ing away  the  mud. 

No  improvement  is  more  generally  wanting,  than 
new  forming  these  roads,  so  as]  to  raise  their  surfaces 
above  the  level  of  the  adjoining  land.  This  would 
greatly  contribute  to  the  hardness  of  them,  to  econo- 
my in  keeping  them  in  repair,  and  enabling  horses  to 
work  with  the  advantage  of  having  sufficient  air  for 
respiration. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS,          157 


EMBANKMENTS. 

Great  care  is  necessary  in  making  high  embank- 
ments. No  person  should  be  entrusted  with  these 
works  who  has  not  had  considerable  experience. 
The  base  should  be  formed,  at  first,  to  its  full  breadth  ; 
the  earth  laid  on  in  regular  courses  or  layers,  if 
not  more  than  four  feet  in  thickness,  of  a  concave 
form,  and  no  fresh  course  should  be  deposited 
until  the  preceeding  one  is  firm  and  consolidated. 
The  slopes  at  which  cuttings  and  embankments  can 
be  safely  made  entirely  depend  on  the  nature  of  the 
soil.  In  the  London  and  plastic  clay  formations,  it 
will  not  be  safe  to  make  the  slopes  of  embankments 
or  cuttings,  that  exceed  4  feet  high,  with  a  steeper 
slope  than  three  to  one.  In  chalk  or  marl,  the  slopes 
will  stand  1  to  1.  In  solid  sandstone,  at  |  to  1,  or 
nearly  vertical.  Before  quitting  this  subject,  it  is 
proper  to  remark,  that  in  every  instance  of  deep  cut- 
ting, the  greatest  pains  should  be  bestowed  in  exam- 
ining the  character  of  the  material  to  be  removed : 
much  difficulty  will  be  avoided  by  proceeding  in  this 
way ;  but  on  the  whole,  the  best  general  rule  to  fol- 
low, is  always  to  lay  out  a  line  of  road,  so  as  to 
avoid,  as  much  as  possible,  deep  cuttings  and  high 
embankments ;  they  are  always  attended  with  great 
expense,  and  are  unavoidably  liable  to  many  objec- 
tions."— Sir  H.  Parnell 


^  III 


158  APPENDIX. 

MATERIALS,  ETC. 

The  breadth  of  roads  should  vary  according  to  cir- 
cumstances. In  the  vicinity  of  large  towns,  where  the 
traffic  is  considerable,  the  road  should,  in  our  opin- 
ion, be  not  less  than  sixty  feet  between  the  fences. 
Where  there  is  less  traffic,  fifty  feet  will  be  sufficient. 
The  whole  breadth  should,  in  these  cases  be  metalled, 
or  laid  with  broken  stones.  Near  London,  and 
other  large  towns  and  cities,  perhaps  70  feet  is 
not  too  great  a  width,  and  a  footpath  should  be  provi- 
ded on  each  side.  "  The  road,"  says  Mr.  Telford, 
in  a  specification  for  the  Holyhead  road,  "  is  to  be 
30  feet  wide,  exclusive  of  footpaths,  with  a  fall  of 
6  inches  from  the  centre  to  the  side  channels."  The 
bed  of  the  new  road  being  prepared  for  the  reception 
of  the  materials,  should,  if  of  a  wet  or  spongy  nature, 
be  well l  rammed''  with  chips  of  stone  ;  in  some  situ- 
ations it  is  advisable  to  lay  a  stratum  of  hand-laid 
stones,  of  from  5  to  7  inches  in  depth,  with  their 
broadest  ends  placed  downwards,  and  the  whole 
built  compactly  together.  On  this  is  to  be  laid  the 
'  metal,'  or  broken  stones,  to  the  depth  of  at  least  8 
inches,  broken  of  a  uniform  size,  so  as  to  form  a  sol- 
id and  compact  body.  To  insure  uniformity  in  the 
size  of  the  broken  stones,  various  tests  have  been 
suggested ;  perhaps  the  most  simple  is,  that  every 
piece  shall  pass  through  a  ring  of  2 £  inches  in  diame- 
ter. On  this  body  of  metal,  no  binding  or  gravel 
should  be  used ;  the  angular  sides  of  the  metal  soon 
lock  into  each  other,  and  form  a  smooth  surface. 
In  the  selection  of  road-metal,  we  prefer  the  several 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  159 

varieties  of  green-stone.  The  best  kinds  of  these 
are  less  friable  than  granite,  when  broken  into  small 
pieces.  It  is,  however,  often  necessary,  for  want  of 
better  materials,  to  use  sandstone,  common  limestone, 
and  chalk,  even  in  districts  where  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  traffic ;  in  some  instances,  where  coal  is  abun- 
dant, sandstone  is  reduced  to  a  vitreous  mass  in 
kilns  erected  by  the  road  side  ;  but  all  such  road-met- 
al is  now  used  very  sparingly  in  the  formation  of 
modem  roads,  and  confined  chiefly  to  the  bridle 
tracks. 

"Well-made  roads,  formed  of  clean,  hard,  broken 
stone,"  observes  Mr.  Macneill,  "placed  on  a  solid 
foundation,  are  very  little  affected  by  changes  of  at- 
mosphere ;  weak  roads,  or  those  that  are  imperfectly 
formed  with  gravel,  flint  or  round  pebbles,  without 
bottoming,  or  foundation  of  stone  pavement  or  con- 
crete, are,  on  the  contrary,  much  affected  by  changes 
of  the  weather.  In  the  formation  of  such  roads,  and 
before  they  become  bound  or  firm,  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  sub-soil  mixes  with  the  stone  or  gravel, 
in  consequence  of  the  necessity  of  putting  the  gravel 
on  in  thin  layers  :  this  mixture  of  earth  or  clay,  ia 
dry,  warm  seasons,  expands  by  the  heat,  and  makes 
the  road  loose  and  open ;  the  consequence  is,  that 
the  stones  are  thrown  out,  and  many  of  them  are 
crushed  and  ground  into  dust,  producing  considera- 
ble wear  and  diminution  of  the  materials.  In  wef 
weather,  also,  the  clay  or  earth  mixed  with  the  stones 
absorbes  moisture,  becomes  soft,  and  allows  the  stones 
to  move  and  rub  against  each  other,  when  acted  upors 


160  APPENDIX. 

by  the  feet  of  horses  or  wheels  of  carriages.  This  at- 
trition of  the  stones  against  each  other  wears  them 
out  surprisingly  fast,  and  produces  large  quantities 
of  mud,  which  tend  to  keep  the  road  damp,  and  by 
that  means  increase  the  injury." 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  161 


ROADS  ABOUT  ALBANY. 

The  principal  roads  about  Albany  are  from  the 
east,  the  north  and  west  The  river  supplies  all  the 
wants  of  commerce  from  the  south.  The  road  to 
Troy,  though  not  strictly  constructed  on  the  McAdam 
principle  has  proved  of  great  benefit  to  the  city.  The 
travelling  has  increased  beyond  all  calculation,  and 
thousands  visit  us,  who  were  deterred  from  doing  so 
by  the  badness  of  the  old  road,  during  many  months 
in  the  year.  The  roads  from  the  east  by  the  way  of 
Bath  and  Greenbush  are  turnpikes,  and  have  all  the 
faults  and  inconveniencies  of  our  common  roads. 
Though  not  profitable  to  their  proprietors,  they  are 
beneficial  to  the  public.  Their  sphere  of  attraction  is 
however  limited.  It  is  said  that  the  business  of  the 
country  west  of  Brainard's  bridge  is  principally  trans- 
acted elsewhere  than  in  this  city.  On  the  other, 
Sandlake  is  probably  the  boundary  of  the  circle  in 
that  direction.  The  old Schenectady  turnpike, though 
its  usefulness  is  lessened  by  the  construction  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Hudson  Rail  Road,  has  been  of  great 
service  to  this  city,  and  is  an  honorable  memorial  of 
its  early  enterprize.  The  roads  towards  Cherry  Val- 
ley and  to  the  south-western  villages  of  this  county, 
are  important  avenues,  but  it  is  said  their  condi- 
tion for  a  great  part  of  the  year  is  such  as  to  direct 
much  of  our  former  business  to  places  lower  down 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  river.  Upon  personal  inqui- 
ry I  am  told  that  the  travelling  on  the  Albany  and 
21 


162  APPENDIX. 

Delaware  turnpike  has  latterly  fallen  off,  and  that 
much  of  the  traffic  once  connected  with  it  has  also 
been  diverted  to  places  below  this  city.  The  Mo- 
hawk and  Hudson  Rail  Road,  though  it  has  been  un- 
fortunate in  many  particulars,  is  still  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  our  city,  and  any  opposition  which  tends 
to  impair  its  utility,  must  be  considered  as  highly  dis- 
advantageous to  the  interests  of  this  community. 
Without  presuming  to  meddle  with  its  concerns,  we 
cannot  disguise  the  opinion,  that  a  new  stem  brought 
into  the  city,  as  by  competent  engineers  it  is  confident- 
ly asserted  may  be  done,  which  shall  enable  the  com- 
pany to  dispense  with  the  animal  power  they  are  now 
obliged  to  use  in  addition  to  that  of  steam,  is  the  chief 
remedy  which  is  to  be  applied  to  the  evils  under 
which  it  languishes. 

One  of  the  most  important  routes  which  has  been 
projected  in  reference  to  our  city,  is  that  which  is  to 
form  the  western  termination  of  the  Railway  from 
Boston  via  Worcester  to  the  state  line.  To  the  line, 
it  is  now  actually  in  process  of  construction,  and  it  re- 
mains to  be  seen,  whether  we  will  permit  either  the 
city  of  Troy  or  Hudson  to  step  in  and  carry  off  the 
eastern  trade  from  us  or  not.  An  existing  company 
has  been  unable  to  obtain  sufficient  funds  to  construct 
the  western  part  of  the  line,  and  sometime  ago  solicit- 
ed a  subscription  from  the  corporation  of  the  city  in 
aid  of  its  funds.  Various  circumstances  and  the  pe- 
culiar embarrassments  of  the  times  have  as  yet  ren- 
dered any  other  step  inadmissible  than  a  preliminary 
survey,  and  the  necessary  negociations  for  the  land 
over  which  it  is  to  pass.  Reports  have  been  made, 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  163 

meetings  held,  and  calculations  published  in  relation 
to  this  work.  As  long  ago  as  1829,  a  gentleman  of 
Boston,  Mr.  William  Jackson,  made  an  appeal  to  the 
mechanics  of  that  city  in  behalf  of  this  enterprise  in 
the  shape  of  a  lecture,  which  deservedly  went  through 
two  large  editions.  He  assumed  the  ground,  that  a 
railway  with  double  tracks  between  Boston  and  Alba- 
ny, would  be  like  the  making  of  another  Hudson  riv- 
er, and  the  creation  of  a  trade  "of  great  value  to  Bos- 
ton, but  still  greater  to  Albany." 

Two  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  barrels  of  flour 
are  annually  consumed  in  Boston.  The  saving  to 
that  city,  in  the  prices  asked  for  this  article  at  seasons 
when  the  supply  is  cut  off  by  the  closing  of  the  navi- 
gation, or  any  accidental  interruption,  he  asserts 
would  in  a  short  time  pay  for  the  construction  of  the 
road.  The  eastern  trade  of  Vermont,  in  his  opinion, 
would  follow  this,  in  preference  to  its  present  over- 
land route.  He  also  estimated  that  the  rise  on  the 
real  estate  of  Boston  alone  would  equal  three  millions 
of  dollars.  The  number  of  passengers  in  that  year, 
between  Boston  and  Albany  was  23,000,  which  ac- 
cording to  experience,  would  be  increased  three  fold, 
if  not  four  fold  in  number.  The  scope  of  his  argu- 
ment in  a  political  and  moral  point  of  view,  was  still 
more  striking. 

The  recent  calculations  of  intelligent  persons  in 
this  city,  demonstrate  its  utility  in  a  striking  manner, 
and  to  these  we  would  refer  all  who  wish  to  under- 
stand the  subject.  "Would  any  Albanian  hesitate  in 
his  support  of  a  project  of  a  second  Hudson  river,  could 
such  a  stream  have  its  termination  at  Boston,  and  its 


164  APPENDIX. 

sources  here?  It  is  to  be  presumed  not;  yet  such  in 
effect  will  be  the  effect  of  the  Rail  Road  to  that 
city.  In  fact,  the  two  towns  would  rapidly  approxi- 
mate in  population  and  resources. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  165 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  ROADS. 


Immense  sums  have  been  expended  in  France; 
and  by  the  tenor  of  an  article  in  Le  Courier  des 
Etats  Unis,  of  February  26, 1  discover  that  these  en- 
terprises are  pursued  with  increasing  energy,  but,  by 
other  concurrent  sources,  of  information,  we  discover 
that  they  are  by  no  means  confined  to  France ;  Bel- 
gium, Germany,  the  Swiss  Cantons,  Austria,  and  Rus- 
sia, all  partake,  more  or  less,  of  this  renewed  spirit  of 
enterprise.  Austria,  indeed,  has  the  honor  to  have 
constructed  the  first  railroad  of  any  consequence  on 
continental  Europe.  This  road  extends  about  150 
English  miles  from  Budweiss,  in  Bohemia,  through 
the  mountains  of  Bohemia  Wald,  to  Lintz,  in  Upper 
Austria,  and  on  the  Danube.  Another  great  line  of 
railroad  has  been  also  designed  in  Austria,  which  is 
to  extend  about  five  hundred  miles,  from  Vienna,  over 
Northern  Hungary,  to  Brody,  on  the  northeastern 
border  of  Austrian  Poland.  Application  has  again 
been  made  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  favorably 
received,  to  construct  another  railroad  of  near  four 
hundred  miles,  from  Brody  to  Odessa,  on  the  Black 
Sea. 

The  very  conception  of  such  improvements  would 
not  have  been  dared  even  thirty  years  ago ;  they  are, 
in  their  conception  alone,  independent  of  even  the  for- 
mation of  plans  for  completion,  proof  of  a  most  aston- 


1G6  APPENDIX. 

ishing  change  in  the  minds  of  mankind  on  continen- 
tal Europe  as  to  the  rational  application  of  their  ener- 
gies and  means.  A  few  years  past  a  railroad  was 
projected  of  about  four  or  five  miles  in  length,  in 
Germany,  between  Nuremberg  arid  Furth,  and  in  the 
French  paper  alluded  to  we  have  the  following : 

"  They  inform  us  from  Nuremberg  that  the  railroad 
(le  chemin  de  fer)  called  the  Louis  has  been  comple- 
ted about  three  years.  Since  the  7th  of  December, 
1835,  there  have  passed  1,357,285  on  this  road  be- 
tween Furth  and  Nuremberg,  and  the  receipts  have 
amounted  to  177,443  florins,  ($71,000.)  And  two  cir- 
cumstances deserving  the  most  particular  mention  are, 
that,  during  three  years'  use  the  rails  have  not  receiv- 
ed appreciable  damage,  nor  has  a  single  accident  put 
human  life  in  danger." 

The  Austrian  and  Bavarian  roads  many  may  re- 
gard as  small  beginnings,  but  they  are  successful  in 
their  operations,  and,  therefore,  morally  speaking, 
they  are  extremely  important  examples  in  the  heart 
of  highly  civilized  communities,  and  have  excited  to 
similar  enterprize  on  a  much  more  extensive  scale. 
The  northern  part  of  Italy,  or  that  part  occupied  by 
the  Po  and  its  confluents,  is  in  an  eminent  degree-  fa- 
vorable to  the  construction  of  railroads,  and  from  the 
source  already  drawn  on  we  have  the  following : 

«  The  Constitution  (statuts)  of  the  Milan  and  Ve- 
nice Railroad  have  been  approved  by  the  Austrian 
Government,  and  the  work  is  to  be  commenced  in  the 
ensuing  spring,  (1839.)  It  is  certain  that  the  com- 
merce between  Milan  and  Genoa  will  be  diverted  into 
the  new  channel  from  Venice ;  which  latter  city  be- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  167 

ing  a  free  port,  colonial  articles  can  be  obtained  there 
on  better  terms  than  at  Genoa.  The  cars,  it  is  sup- 
posed, will  occupy  about  eight  hours  between  Milan 
and  Venice ;  price  of  passage  for  persons,  one  franc, 
18|  cents." 

The  distance  from  Genoa  to  Milan  is  about  eighty 
English  miles,  and  from  Milan  to  Venice  one  hundred 
and  sixty. 

My  reasons  for  requesting  a  place  in  the  National 
Intelligencer  are  partly  stated,  but  I  was  also  induced 
by  the  following.  The  original,  I  may  observe,  is 
preceded  by  several  very  forcible  observations  on  the 
great  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  propulsion,  by 
steam  of  carriages  on  common  roads ;  and  I  may  also 
premise  that  the  substance  called  BETON  is1  in  fact  an 
an  artificial  pudding  stone  or  amygdaloid.* 

"Of  all  the  enterprises  formed  to  obtain  this  result, 
(moving-  carriages  on  common  roads,}  there  is  one 
which  appears  to  demand  public  attention  in  the 
highest  degree  ;  that  is,  Beton  roads.  Such  roads  ap- 
pear to  us  destined  to  resolve  that  great  question  in 
social  economy  which  is  now,  above  all  others,  of 


*  Professor  D.  H.  Mahan,  of  the  Military  Academy,  New- York, 
in  his  excellent  Treatise  on  Civil  Engineering,  gives  at  page  24  the 
following  components  to  form  Beton: 

Hydraulic  lime,  unslaked 0,30 

Sand,  middling 0,30 

Cement,  common  clay .0,30 

Gravel,  course 0,20 

drippings  of  stone 0,40 

This  compound  would  be  a  true  artificial  pudding  stone,  and,  no 
doubt,  would  admit  of  other  components  and  proportions,  and  calls 
for  extended  experiments  on  both  its  composition  and  uses. 


168  APPENDIX. 

paramount  interest,  that  is,  to  construct,  at  moderate 
expense,  routes  admitting  facile  transport,  by  steam 
power. 

"  A  company  for  the  construction  ot  roads  in  Beton 
has  recently  been  formed  at  Paris,  under  the  direction 
of  the  honorable  M.  Garcias,  member  of  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  from  the  Eastern  Pyrenees. 

"The  roads  which  this  company  proposes  to  con- 
struct are  to  be  formed  by  two  different  modes  of  pro- 
ceeding: 

"  1st.  On  land  purchased  from  individuals. 

"2d.  Along  the  sides  of  roads  already  formed. 

"In  the  first  mode,  the  expense,  liberally  estimated, 
would  be  170,000  francs  per  league,  about  $12,000 
per  English  mile;  whilst  the  second  mode  will  not 
demand  an  expenditure  exceeding  80,000  francs 
($15,000)  per  league,  (5,550  the  English  mile.)  The 
speed,  based  upon  numerous  experiments,  is  calcula- 
ted at  a  mean  of  six  leagues  per  hour,  about  16  Eng- 
lish miles." 

In  the  United  States  the  difference  of  expense  be- 
tween the  two  modes  would  probably  be  less  than  in 
France.  The  article  goes  on  as  follows  : 

"  These  roads  are  to  be  composed  of  a  zone  of  Beton 
from  15  to  20  tenths  of  a  metre  ( £  to  |  of  a  foot  Eng- 
lish) in  thickness,  equally  spread  over  a  surface  of  2\ 
metres,  (8  2-l()th  English  feet)  in  width,  and  without 
track  or  jutting. 

"  The  construction  of  these  roads  demands  none  of 
the  expensive  and  lengthened  studies  requisite  for  con- 
structing railroads.  It  has  been  established,  experi- 
mentally, that  the  Beton,  shortly  after  being  placed, 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  169 

can  support  the  heaviest  carriages  without  breach  or 
depression ;  and  that,  in  less  than  one  year,  several 
lines  of  road  may  be  brought  into  full  use,  and  this 
advantage  is  already  felt  in  all  its  force.  The  admin- 
istrative expense,  as  also  that  of  repairing,  is  insig- 
nificant when  compared  with  railroads.  Again:  the 
Beton  roads,  to  the  advantages  of  celerity,  economy  of 
construction,  and  price  of  transport,  add  all  the  other 
conditions  required  at  present  with  so  much  ardor." 

Changing  the  names  of  places,  the  latter  part  of  the 
preceding  quotation  would  apply  to  the  United  States 
with  a  force  augmented  in  intensity  in  proportion  to 
the  immense  difference  in  extent  of  territory  compa- 
red to  that  of  France. 

It  may  be  remarked  as  amongst  the  most  extraor- 
dinary facts  in  history,  that  roads  have  been  amongst 
the  most  neglected  of  all  those  improvements  necessa- 
ry to  the  inter-communication  of  mankind.  It  has 
not  yet  been  a  century  since  any  considerable  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  roads,  even  in  the  most  densely  inhab- 
ited sections  of  Europe.  Another  circumstance  con- 
nected with  this  vital  subject  may  be  noticed :  that  is, 
the  fact  that  the  three  monarchs  of  modern  Europe 
most  eminent  for  military  talent  and  success  in  war, 
Peter  I.  of  Russia,  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia,  and  Napo- 
leon, were  all  still  more  eminent  for  their  attention  to 
internal  improvements.  The  canal  connexion  be- 
tween the  Baltic  and  Wolga  has  contributed  to  swell 
the  fame  of  Peter ;  the  connexions  between  the  Elbe, 
Oder,  and  Vistula  have  done  like  service  to  the  name 
of  Frederick,  whilst  the  fame  of  Napoleon  is  drawn  in 
lines  ineffaceable  over  the  Alps.  Were  it  not  for  the 
22 


170  APPENDIX. 

canals  of  New- York,  the  name  of  De  Witt  Clinton 
might  fade  away  with  those  of  others  whose  fame 
rests  on  mere  political  works.  But  the  man  who  con- 
tributed most  to  form  a  water  communication  be- 
tween the  Atlantic  tides  and  the  inland  sea  of  Erie 
can  only  be  forgotten  in  the  grave  of  History  itself. — 
Nat.  Intelligencer. 


o  I  '* 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  171 


TRAVELLING  AS  IT  WAS  AND  AS  IT  IS. 

The  following  brief  summary  of  a  recent  journey 
from  New- York  to  New-Orleans,  contrasted  with  one 
made  in  1800,  will  perhaps  be  interesting,  and  serve 
to  illustrate  the  modern  improvement  in  travelling. 

IN  1800. 

"April  3d.  Left  New- York  in  ferryboat  for  Jersey 
city.  Took  two-horse  coach  and  got  to  Philadelphia 
the  fourth  day  at  4  P.  M.  Left  Philadelphia  next 
morning  in  a  one-horse  chaise,  with  the  mail  bag  be- 
hind, for  Lancaster,  where  we  arrived  the  third  day. 
At  Lancaster  bought  a  horse,  and  after  a  nine  days' 
journey  through  the  forests,  reached  Pittsburg.  Here, 
with  some  others,  I  bought  for  eighteen  dollars,  a  flat 
boat,  in  which  we  took  our  departure  for  New-Or- 
leans, floating  with  the  current.  After  divers  adven- 
tures and  escapes  from  great  peril  by  land  and  water, 
we  reached  Natchez  in  fifty-seven  days  after  leaving 
Pittsburg,  and  New- Orleans  city  in  thirteen  days 
thereafter,  having  been  from  New- York  on  the  jour- 
ney eighty-four  days,  which  our  friends  in  New-Or- 
leans did  say  was  an  expeditious  voyage.  My  own 
personal  cost  on  the  way  was,  in  sum  total,  £27  11s. 
4£d.» 

IN  1839. 

Left  New- York  Monday,  January  21st,  at  6  A.  M. 
in  railroad  cars  at  Jersey  city.  Arrived  at  Philadel- 


172  APPENDIX. 

phia  at  ten  minutes  past  12.     Time,  6  hours  and  10 
minutes. — Cost,  $4. 

At  2  left  Philadelphia  in  cars  for  Baltimore.  Arri- 
ved at  8  P.  M.  Time,  6  hours.— Cost,  $4. 

Left  Baltimore  next  afternoon,  at  4.  in  moil  chariot 
for  Wheeling.  Arrived  at  Wheeling  5  minutes  be- 
fore 12  Saturday  noon.  Time  43  hours  and  50  min- 
utes.—Cost,  $23. 

Left  Wheeling  next  morning,  in  accommodation 
stage  for  Cincinnati.  Arrived  at  Cincinnati  in  59 
hours  and  30  minutes.  Cost,  $24.50. 

Left  Cincinnati  at  10  next  morning,  in  the  mail 
boat  Pike,  and  at  10  at  night  reached  Louisville. 
Time,  12  hours.— Cost,  $4. 

Left  Louisville  next  morning  at  11,  in  steamer  Di- 
ana, and  reached  Natchez  the  sixth  day.  Time,  149 
hours. — Cost,  $35. 

Left  Natchez  same  day,  and  reached  New-Orleans 
the  next  evening.  Time,  30  hours. — Cost,  $10. 

Incidental  expenses  at  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Cin- 
cinnati, and  Louisville,  $10. 

Total  306  hours  30  minutes.— Cost.  $114.50. 

Thus  making  12  days,  18  hours,  and  30  minutes, 
the  time  of  travel  between  New- York  and  New-Or- 
leans. Difference  between  1839  and  1800,  in  time, 
about  71  days.  Difference  in  expense,  about  $25  in 
favor  of  1839. 

N.  B.  This  last  journey  was  made  in  the  winter 
season.     In  the  summer  months  it  can  be  performed 
for  $80,  and  in  less  time.     The  above  includes  every , 
item,  both  of  expense,   "feed  and  fare." — Natchez 
Courier. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  173 

CANALS  OF  ENGLAND. 

The  following  calculations  will  show  the  immense 
wealth  created  in  England  by  the  spirit  of  association 
and  of  enterprise,  which  is  developed  with  so  much 
difficulty  amongst  other  nations.  It  presents  a  com- 
parison between  the  first  cost  of  shares  in  each  re- 
spective canal,  and  of  the  profit  realized  on  stock,  ac- 
cording to  the  actual  returns : 

First  cost.  Value  of  stock. 

Canal  of  Coventry    -    ster'g  £100  £750 

'{     of  Mersey        -y3  100  T20 

«     ofConford      -        -        100  410 

«     of  Leeds  and  Liverpool    100  470 

«     of  Monmouthshire  -         100  195 

"     of  Trent  and  Mersey, 

one-quarter  of  part         50  650 

«     of  Longborough       -         142  2,200 

"     of  Glamorganshire  172  290 

«     of  Warwick  &  Hampton  100  215 

«      of  Stroudwater         -         150  500 

«     of  Shrewsbury         -        125  250 

"     of  Birmingham      "\  -:  >i       17  240 

«     of  Stafford  &  Worcester  140  550 

The  capital  employed  in  the  prosecution  of  these 
canals  increased,  as  their  utility  and  the  benefits  to  be 
derived  from  them  were  made  known,  to  the  surpri- 
sing point  at  which  they  are  at  the  present  day,  being 
a  quintuple  profit.  One  hundred  pounds  sterling 
invested  in  such  stock  yields  to  its  proprietor  an  inte- 
rest of  more  than  five  times  that  amount,  and  a  reve- 
nue in  proportion. 


174 


APPENDIX. 


'Ooaoooooooccooo 
<_-  x-   i*  i^  c;  c  o  o  «c  o  o  o  o  s  o 

r  TP'  N"  <N'  co  — r  cTc;"  cT  x~  o"  o"c'  trf  o"  c" 

fifssfigrllsiggsli 


:§  :  •  •  :  :§ 


^•qr-*" 


S§ 


O  O  O  ' 

§§§: 


o  o  o  o  o 


-ooo^oooo 

:§§§§§g§8 


1±l  rf^^litMKjtf       ? 

HIifllHllUllil! 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  175 


LAWS  OF  NEW- YORK. 


HIGHWAYS  AND  BRIDGES. 

ART.  I. — Of  the  officers  entrusted  with  the  care  and 
superintendence  of  highways  and  bridges  ;  and 
their  general  powers  and  duties. 
SECTION.  1.  The  commissioners  of  highways  in 

the  several  towns  in  this  state,  shall  have  the  care  and 

superintendence  of  the  highways  and  bridges  therein ; 

and  it  shall  be  their  duty, 

1.  To  give  directions  for  the  repairing  of  the  roads 
and  bridges,  within  their  respective  towns  : 

2.  To  regulate  the  roads  already  laid  out,  and  to 
alter  such  of  them  as  they,  or  a  majority  of  them,- 
shall  deem  inconvenient : 

3.  To  cause  such  of  the  roads  used  as  highways,- 
as  shall  have  been  laid  out  but  not  sufficiently  descri- 
bed, and  such  as  shall  have  been  used  for  twenty  years 
but  not  recorded,  to  be  ascertained,  described  and  en- 
tered of  record  in  the  town  clerk's  office : 

4.  To  cause  the  highways,  and  the  bridges  whicfo 
are  or  may  be  erected  over  streams  intersecting  high- 
ways, to  be  kept  in  repair  : 

5.  To  divide  their  respective  towns  into  so  many 
road  districts  as  they  shall  judge  convenient,  by  wri- 
ting under  their  hands,  to  be  lodged  with  the  town 


176  APPENDIX. 

clerk,  and  by  him  to  be  entered  in  the  town  book : 
such  divisions  to  be  made  annually,  if  they  shall  think 
it  necessary,  and  in  all  cases  to  be  made  ten  days  be- 
fore the  annual  town  meeting  : 

6.  To  assign  to  each  of  the  said  road  districts,  such 
of  the  inhabitants  liable  to  work  on  highways,  as  they 
shall  think  proper,  having  regard  to  proximity  of  res- 
idence as  much  as  may  be  :  and, 

7.  To  require  the  overseers  of  highways,  from  time 
to  time  and  as  often  as  they  shall  deem  necessary,  to 
warn  all  persons  assessed  to  work  on  highways,  to 
come  and  work  thereon,  with  such  implements,  carri- 
ages, cattle  or  sleds  as  the  said  commissioners  or  any 
one  of  them,  shall  direct. 

§2.  The  commissioners  of  highways  shall  have 
power,  in  the  manner,  and  under  the  the  restrictions 
hereinafter  provided,  to  lay  out  on  actual  survey,  such 
new  roads  in  their  respective  towns  as  they  may  deem 
necessary  and  proper;  and  to  discontinue  such  old 
roads  and  highways,  as  shall  appear  to  them,  on  the 
oaths  of  twelve  freeholders  of  the  same  town,  to  have 
become  unnecessary. 

§3.  The  commissioners  of  highways  of  each  town, 
shall  render  to  the  board  of  town  auditors  at  their  an- 
nual meeting  for  auditing  the  accounts  of  town  offi- 
cers, an  account  in  writing,  stating, 

1.  The  labor  assessed  and  performed  in  such  town  : 

2.  The  sums  received  by  such  commissioners  for 
fines  and  commutations,and  all  other  moneys  received 
under  this  Chapter : 

3.  The  improvements  which  have  been  made  on 
the  roads  and  bridges  in  their  town,  during  the  year 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  177 

immediately  preceding  such  report,  and  an  account  of 
the  state  of  such  roads  and  bridges  :  and, 

4.  A  statement  of  the  improvements  necessary  to 
be  made  on  such  roads  and  bridges,  and  an  estimate 
of  the  probable  expense  of  making  such  improve- 
ments, beyond  what  the  labor  to  be  assessed  in  that 
year,  will  accomplish. 

§  4.  The  commissioners  of  highways  of  each  town 
shall  deliver  to  the  supervisor  of  such  town,  a  state- 
ment of  the  improvements  necessary  to  be  made  on 
the  roads  and  bridges,  together  with  the  probable  ex- 
pense thereof;  which  supervisor  shall  lay  the  same 
before  the  board  of  supervisors  at  their  next  meeting. 
The  board  of  supervisors  shall  cause  the  amount  so 
estimated,  to  be  assessed,  levied  and  collected,  in  such 
town,  in  the  same  manner  as  other  town  charges  ;  but 
the  monies  to  be  raised  in  any  such  town,  shall  not 
exceed  in  any  one  year,  the  sum  of  two  hunderd  and 
fifty  dollars. 

§  5.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  of 
highways  of  each  town,  to  cause  mile-boards  or  stones, 
to  be  erected,  where  not  already  erected,  on  the  post 
roads,  and  such  other  public  roads  in  their  town,  as 
they  may  think  proper,  at  the  distance  of  one  mile 
from  each  other,  with  such  fair  and  legible  inscrip- 
tions as  they  may  think  proper. 

§  6.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  overseers  of  high- 
ways in  each  town, 

1.  To  repair  and  keep  in  order  the  highways  with- 
in the  several  districts  for  which  they  shall  have  been 
elected : 

2.  When  so  required  by  the  commissioners  of  high- 

23 


178  APPENDIX. 

ways,  or  any  one  of  them,  to  warn  all  persons  assessed 
to  work  on  the  highways  in  their  respective  districts, 
to  come  and  work  thereon  : 

3.  To  cause  the  noxious  weeds  on  each  side  of  the 
highway  within  their  respective  districts,  to  be  cut 
down  or  destroyed  twice  in  each  year,  once  before  the 
first  day  of  July,  and  again  before  the  first  day  of 
September ;  and  the  requisite  labor  shall  be  consider- 
ed highway  work :  and, 

4.  To  collect  all  fines  and  commutation  money, 
and  to  execute  all  lawful  orders  of  the  commissioners. 

§  7.  It  shall  be  the  further  duty  of  the  overseers  of 
highways,  once  in  every  month,  from  the  first  day  of 
April  until  the  first  day  of  December,  to  cause  all  the 
loose  stones  lying  on  the  beaten  track  of  every  road 
within  their  respective  districts,  to  be  removed  ;  and 
to  cause  the  monuments  erected  or  to  be  erected,  as  the 
boundaries  of  highways,  to  be  kept  up  and  renewed, 
so  that  the  extent  of  such  roads  may  be  publicly 
known. 

§  8.  When  the  quantity  of  labor  assessed  on  the  in- 
habitants of  any  road  district  by  the  commissioners, 
shall  be  deemed  insufficient  by  the  overseer  of  such 
district  to  keep  the  roads  therein  in  repair,  it  shall  be 
the  further  duty  of  such  overseer,  to  make  another  as- 
sessment on  the  actual  residents  in  such  district,  in 
the  same  proportion,  as  near  as  may  be,  and  not  ex- 
ceeding one  third  of  the  number  of  days  assessed  in 
the  same  year  by  the  commissioners  on  the  inhabi- 
tants of  such  district ;  and  the  labor  so  assessed  by  an 
overseer,  shall  be  performed  or  commuted  for,  in  like 
manner  as  if  the  same  had  been  assessed  by  the  com- 
missioners of  highways. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  179 

§  9.  The  commissioners  of  highways  of  each  town, 
shall  cause  guide-posts,  with  proper  inscriptions  and 
devices,  to  be  erected  at  the  intersections  of  all  the 
post-roads  in  their  town,  and  at  the  intersection  of 
such  other  roads  therein  as  they  may  deem  necessary. 

§  10.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  overseers  of  high- 
ways of  each  town  to  maintain  and  keep  in  repair,  at 
the  expense  of  the  town,  such  guide-posts  as  may  have 
been  erected  by  order  of  the  commissioners,  within 
the  limits  of  the  districts  for  which  they  shall  have 
been  respectively  elected  or  appointed. 

§  11.  The  commissioners  of  highways,  whenever 
they  shall  think  it  necessary  or  useful,  may  direct  and 
empower  any  overseer  of  highways,  in  their  respect- 
ive towns,  to  procure  a  good  and  sufficient  iron  or 
steel-shod  scraper,  and  plough,  or  either  of  them,  for 
the  use  of  his  road  district ;  to  be  paid  for,  by  the  mo- 
neys arising  from  commutations  and  fines  within  such 
district. 

§  12.  In  case  such  moneys  shall  be  insufficient  for 
the  purpose,  the  deficiency  shall  be  assessed  by  the 
overseers  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  districts,  in  the 
proportion  they  are  respectively  assessed  on  the  as- 
sessment roll  of  said  town  ;  and  if  any  one  so  assess- 
ed, shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  pay  such  assessment,  the 
same  may  be  sued  for  and  recovered  by  the  overseer. 

§  13.  If  any  overseer  shall  be  employed  more  days 
in  executing  the  several  duties  enjoined  on  him  by 
this  Chapter,  than  he  is  assessed  to  work  on  the  high- 
way, he  shall  be  paid  for  the  excess  at  the  rate  of  sev- 
enty-five cents  per  day,  and  be  allowed  to  retain  the 
same  out  of  the  moneys  which  may  come  into  his 


180  APPENDIX. 

hands  for  fines  under  this  Chapter ;  but  he  shall  not 
be  permitted  to  commute  for  the  days  he  is  assessed. 

§  14.  If  any  person  chosen  to  the  office  of  overseer 
of  highways,  shall  refuse  to  serve,  or  if  his  office  shall 
become  vacant,  the  commissioners  of  highways  of  the 
town,  shall,  by  warrant  under  their  hands,  appoint 
some  other  person  in  his  stead ;  and  the  overseer  so 
appointed,  shall  have  the  same  powers,  be  subject  to 
the  same  orders,  and  liable  to  the  same  penalties,  as 
overseers  chosen  in  town  meetings. 

§  15.  The  commissioners  making  the  appointment, 
shall  cause  such  warrant  to  be  forthwith  filed  in  the 
office  of  the  town  clerk,  who  shall  give  notice  to  the 
person  appointed  as  in  other  cases. 

§  16.  Every  overseer  of  high  ways  who  shall  refuse 
or  neglect  either, 

1.  To  warn  the  people  assessed  to  work  on  the 
highways,  when  he  shall  have  been  required  so  to 
do,  by  the  commissioners,  or  either  of  them  : 

2.  To  collect  the  moneys  that  may  arise  from  fines 
or  commutations :  or, 

3.  To  perform  any  of  the  duties  required  by  this 
chapter,  or  which  may  be  enjoined  on  him  by  the 
commissioners  of  highways  of  his  town,  and  for  the 
omission  of  which,  a  penalty  is  not  hereinafter  pro- 
vided : 

Shall,  for  every  such  refusal  or  neglect,  forfeit  the 
sum  often  dollars,  to  be  sued  for  by  the  commission- 
ers of  highways  of  the  town ;  and  when  recovered  to 
be  applied  by  them  in  making  and  improving  the 
roads  and  bridges  therein. 

$  17.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  of 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  181 

highways  of  each  town,  whenever  any  person  resi- 
dent in  their  town  shall  make  complaint  that  any 
overseer  of  highways  in  such  town  has  refused  or  ne- 
glected to  perform  any  of  the  duties  enumerated  in 
the  last  preceding  section,  and  shall  give  or  offer  to 
such  commissioners,  sufficient  security  to  indemnify 
them  against  the  costs  which  may  be  incurred  in  pro- 
secuting for  the  penalty  annexed  to  such  refusal  or 
neglect,  forthwith  to  prosecute  such  overseer  for  the 
offence  complained  of. 

§  18.  If  such  commissioners  of  highways  shall  re- 
fuse or  neglect  to  prosecute  for  such  penalty,  they  shall 
in  every  such  case,  forfeit  the  sum  of  ten  dollars,  to 
be  recovered  by  the  person  who  shall  have  made  such 
complaint,  and  given  or  offered  such  security. 

ART.  II. — Of  the  persons  liable  to  work  on  high- 
ways, and  the  making  of  assessments  therefor. 
§  19.  Every  person  owning  or  occupying  land  in 
the  town  in  which  he  or  she  resides,  and  every  male 
inhabitant  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  residing 
in  the  town,  when  the  assessment  is  made,  shall  be 
assessed  to  work  on  the  public  highways  in  such 
town  ;  and  the  lands  of  non-residents,  situated  in  such 
town,  shall  be  assessed  for  highway  labor,  as  herein- 
after directed. 

§  20.  The  commissioners  of  highways  of  each  town 
shall  meet  within  eighteen  days  after  they  shall  be 
chosen,  at  the  place  of  town  meeting,  on  such  day  as 
they  shall  agree  upon,  and  afterwards  at  such  other 
times  and  places  as  they  shall  think  proper. 

§  21.  Each  of  the  overseers  of  highways  shall  de- 


182  APPENDIX, 

liver  to  the  clerk  of  the  town,  within  sixteen  days  af- 
ter his  election  or  appointment,  a  list  subscribed  by 
such  overseer,  of  the  names  of  all  the  inhabitants  in 
his  road  district,  who  are  liable  to  work  on  the  high- 
ways. 

$  22.  The  commissioners  of  highways  in  each 
town,  at  their  first  or  any  subsequent  meeting,  shall 
make  out  a  list  and  statement  of  the  contents  of  all 
lots,  pieces  or  parcels  of  land  within  such  town,  own- 
ed by  non-residents  therein,  every  lot  so  designated 
shall  be  described  in  the  same  manner  as  is  required 
from  assessors,  and  its  value  shall  be  set  down  oppo- 
site to  such  description,  such  value  shall  be  the  same 
as  was  affixed  to  such  lot  in  the  last  assessment  roll 
of  the  town  ;  and  if  such  lot  was  not  separately  valu- 
ed in  such  roll,  then  in  proportion  to  the  valuation 
which  shall  have  been  affixed  to  the  whole  tract  of 
which  such  lot  shall  be  a  part. 

§  23.  The  town  clerk  shall  deliver  the  lists  filed  by 
the  overseers,  to  the  commissioners  of  highways  of 
the  town  ;  who  shall  proceed,  at  their  next  meeting, 
or  at  some  subsequent  meeting,  to  ascertain,  estimate 
and  assess  the  highway  labor  to  be  performed  in  their 
town,  the  then  ensuing  year. 

§  24.  In  making  such  estimate  and  assessment  the 
commissioners  shall  proceed  as  follows: 

1.  The  whole  number  of  days'  work  to  be  assessed 
in  each  year  shall  be  ascertained,  and  shall  be  at  least 
three  times  the  number  of  taxable  inhabitants  in  such 
town. 

2.  Every  male  inhabitant  being  above  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years,  (excepting  ministers  of  the  gospel 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  183 

and  priests  of  every  denomination,  paupers,  and  idiots 
and  lunatics,)  shall  be  assessed  at  least  one  day. 

3.  The  residue  of  such  day's  work  shall  be  appor- 
tioned upon  the  estate,  real  and  personal,  of  every  in- 
habitant of  such  town,  as  the  same  shall  appear  by 
the  last  assessment  roll  of  the  said  town,  and  upon 
each  tract  or  parcel  of  land,  of  which  the  owners  are 
non-residents,  contained  in  the  list  made  as  aforesaid : 

4.  If,  after  such  apportionment,  there  shall  be  any 
deficiency  in  the  number  of  days'  work  determined 
by  the  commissioners  to  be  performed  in  their  town, 
the  then  ensuing  year,  such  deficiency  shall  be  assess- 
ed upon  the  estates,  real  and  personal,  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  town,  and  upon  each  tract  or  parcel  of 
land  of  which  the  owners  are  non-residents,  according 
to  the  last  assessment  roll  : 

5.  The  commissioners  shall  affix  to  the  name  of 
each  person  named  in  the  list  furnished  by  the  ovei- 
seers,  and  also  to  the  description  of  each  tract  or  par- 
cel of  land  contained  in  the  list  prepared  by  them  of 
non-resident  lands,  the  number  of  days  which  such 
person  or  tract  shall  be  assessed  for  highway  labor,  as 
herein  directed,  and  the  commissioners  shall  subscribe 
such  lists  and  file  them  with  the  town  clerk. 

§  25.  Lands  of  non-residents  within  any  town,  oc- 
cupied and  improved  by  the  owner  or  owners,  or  his 
or  their  servants  or  agents,  shall  be  liable  to  the  same 
assessments  for  highways  as  if  the  owner  or  owners- 
were  residents. 

§  26.  The  real  property  of  non-resident  owners,  im- 
proved or  occupied  by  a  servant  or  agent,  shall  be 
subject  to  assessment  of  highway  labor,  and  at  the 
same  rate  as  the  real  property  of  resident  owners. 


184  APPENDIX. 

§  27.  The  commissioners  shall  direct  the  clerk  of 
the  town  to  make  a  copy  of  each  list,  and  shall  sub- 
scribe such  copies  ;  after  which,  they  shall  cause  the 
several  copies  to  be  delivered  to  the  respective  over- 
seers of  highways  of  the  several  districts  in  which  the 
highway  labor  is  assessed. 

§  28.  The  names  of  persons  left  out  of  any  such  list, 
and  of  new  inhabitants,  shall  from  time  to  time  be 
added  to  the  several  lists,  and  they  shall  be  rated,  by 
the  overseers  in  proportion  to  their  real  and  personal 
estate,  to  work  on  the  highways,  as  others  rated  by 
the  commissioners  on  such  lists,  subject  to  an  appeal 
to  the  commissioners. 

§  29.  Whenever  any  non-resident  owner  shall  con- 
ceive himself  aggrieved  by  the  assessments  of  any 
commissioners  of  highways,  in  carrying  into  effect  the 
provisions  of  this  Article,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  such 
owner,  or  his  agent,  within  thirty  days  after  such  as- 
sessment, to  appeal  to  any  three  judges  of  the  court  of 
common  pleas  of  the  county  in  which  such  land  is 
situated. 

§  30.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  judges  within 
twenty  days  thereafter,  to  convene  and  decide  on  such 
appeal,  the  said  owner  or  agent  giving  notice  to  the 
commissioners  of  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the 
judges ;  and  their  decision,  or  that  of  any  two  of  them, 
shall  be  final  and  conclusive  in  the  premises.  Each 
judge  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  for  his  services  on 
such  appeal,  two  dollars  for  each  day  he  may  be  em- 
ployed thereon,  to  be  paid  by  the  party  appealing,  if 
the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners  and  overseers 
shall  be  affirmed ;  but  if  reversed  or  modified  favora- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  185 

ble  to  the  party  appealing,  to  be  levied  and  paid  as 
part  of  the  contingent  expenses  of  such  town. 

§  31.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  of 
highways  of  each  town,  to  credit  such  persons  as  live 
on  private  roads,  and  work  the  same,  so  much  on  ac- 
count of  their  assessments,  as  such  commissioners 
may  deem  necessary  to  work  such  private  road ;  or  to 
annex  such  private  roads  to  some  of  the  highway 
districts. 

§  32.  Whenever  the  commissioners  of  highways 
shall  assess  the  occupant,  for  any  land  not  owned  by 
such  occupant,  they  shall  distinguish  in  their  assess- 
ment lists,  the  amount  charged  upon  such  land,  from 
the  personal  tax,  if  any,  of  the  occupant  thereof. 
But  when  any  such  land  shall  be  assessed  in  the  name 
of  the  occupant,  the  owner  thereof  shall  not  be  assess- 
ed during  the  same  year  to  work  on  the  highways  on 
account  of  the  same  land. 

§  33.  Whenever  any  tenant  of  any  land  for  a  less 
term  than  twenty-five  years,  shall  be  assessed  to  work 
on  the  highways,  for  such  land,  pursuant  to  the  last 
preceding  section,  and  shall  actually  perform  such 
work,  or  commute  therefor,  he  shall  be  entitled  to  a 
deduction  from  the  rent  due,  or  to  become  due  from 
him,  for  such  land,  equal  to  the  full  amount  of  such 
assessment,  estimating  the  same  at  the  rate  of  sixty- 
two  and  a  half  cents  per  day ;  unless  otherwise  pro- 
vided for  by  covenant  or  agreement,  between  such 
tenant  and  his  landlord. 


24 


186  APPENDIX. 

ART.  III. —  Of  the  duties  of  overseers  in  regard  to 
the  performance  of  labor  upon  highways;  and 
for  the  performance  of  such  labor  or  the  commu- 
\     tation  therefor. 

§  34.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  overseers  of  high- 
ways, to  give  at  least  twenty-four  hours'  notice  to  all 
persons  assessed  to  work  on  the  highways,  and  resi- 
ding within  the  limits  of  their  respective  districts,  of 
the  time  and  place,  when  arid  where  they  are  to  ap- 
pear for  that  purpose,  and  with  what  implements; 
but  no  person  being  a  resident  of  the  town,  shall  be 
required  to  work  on  any  highway,  other  than  in  the 
district  in  which  he  resides,  unless  he  shall  elect  to 
work  in  some  district  where  he  has  any  land ;  and 
in  such  case  he  may,  with  the  approbation  of  the 
commissioners  of  highways,  apply  the  work  assessed 
in  respect  to  such  land,  in  the  district  where  the 
same  is  situated. 

§  35.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  several  overseers  of 
highways,  to  notify  the  agent  of  every  non-resident 
landholder,  whose  lands  are  assessed,  (if  such  agent 
reside  in  the  town  where  such  assessment  is  made) 
of  the  number  of  days  such  non-resident  is  assessed, 
and  of  the  time  when,  and  the  place  where  the  labor 
is  to  be  performed ;  'which  notice  shall  be  given  at 
least  five  days  previous  to  the  time  appointed. 

§  36.  If  the  overseer  cannot  ascertain  that  such  non- 
resident has  an  agent  within  such  town,  he  shall  affix 
a  written  notice  on  the  outer  door  of  the  building  in 
which  the  last  town  meeting  in  such  town  was  held 
containing  a  list  of  the  names  of  such  non-residents, 
when  known,  and  a  description  of  the  tracts  of  land 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  187 

comprised  in  his  list,  together  with  the  number  of 
days'  labor,  assessed  on  each  tract,  and  a  specifica- 
tion of  the  time  when  and  the  place  where  such  la- 
bor is  to  be  performed  ;  which  notice  shall  be  posted 
at  least  twenty  days  before  the  time  appointed  for 
performing  such  labor. 

§  37.  Every  person  liable  to  work  on  the  high- 
ways, shall  work  the  whole  number  of  days  for 
which  he  shall  have  been  assessed  ;  but  every  such 
person,  other  than  an  overseer,  may  elect  to  commute 
for  the  same,  or  for  some  part  thereof,  at  the  rate  of 
sixty-two  and  a  half  cents  for  each  day :  in  which 
case,  such  commutation  money  shall  be  paid  to  the 
overseer  of  highways,  of  the  district  in  which  the  per- 
son commuting  shall  reside,  to  be  applied  and  expend- 
ed by  such  overseer  in  the  improvement  of  the  roads 
and  bridges  in  the  same  district. 

§  38.  Every  person  intending  to  commute  for  his 
assessment,  or  for  any  part  thereof,  shall,  within 
twenty-four  hours  after  he  shall  be  notified  to  appear 
and  work  on  the  highways,  pay  the  commutation 
money  for  the  work  required  of  him  by  such  notice ; 
and  the  commutation  shall  not  be  considered  as  com- 
plete until  such  money  be  paid. 

§  39.  Every  overseer  of  highways  shall  have  pow- 
er to  require  a  team ;  or  a  cart,  wagon  or  plough, 
with  a  pair  of  horses  or  oxen,  and  a  man  to  manage 
them  ;  from  any  person  having  the  same  within  his 
district,  who  shall  have  been  assessed  three  days  or 
more,  and  who  shall  not  have  commuted  for  his  as- 
sessment ;  and  the  person  furnishing  the  same  upon 
such  requisition,  shall  be  entitled  to  a  credit  of  three 
days  for  each  day's  service  therewith, 


188  APPENDIX. 

§  40.  Every  person  assessed  to  work  on  the  high- 
ways and  warned  to  work,  may  appear  in  person 
or  by  an  able  bodied  man  as  a  substitute ;  and  the 
person  or  substitute  so  appearing,  shall  actually  work 
eight  hours  in  each  day,  under  the  penalty  of  twelve 
and  a  half  cents  for  every  hour  such  person  or  substi- 
tute shall  be  in  default,  to  be  imposed  as  a  fine  on  the 
person  assessed. 

§  41.  If  any  such  person  or  his  substitute  shall,  af- 
ter appearing,  remain  idle,  or  not  work  faithfully,  or 
hinder  others  from  working,  such  offender  shall,  for 
every  offence,  forfeit  the  sum  of  one  dollar. 

§  42.  Every  person  so  assessed  and  duly  notified, 
who  shall  not  commute,  and  who  shall  refuse  or  ne- 
glect to  appear  as  above  provided,  shall  forfeit  for  ev- 
ery day's  refusal  or  neglect,  the  sum  of  one  dollar. 
If  he  was  required  to  furnish  a  team,  carriage,  man 
or  implements,  and  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  comply, 
he  shall  be  fined  as  follows: 

1.  For  wholly  omitting  to  comply  with  such  requi- 
sition, three  dollars  for  each  day : 

2.  For  omitting  to  furnish  a  cart,  wagon  or  plough, 
one  dollar  for  each  day : 

3.  For  omitting  to  furnish  a  pair  of  horses  or  oxen, 
one  dollar  for  each  day  : 

4.  For  omitting  to  furnish  a  man  to  manage  the 
team,  one  dollar  for  each  day. 

§  43.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  overseer  of  high- 
ways, within  six  days  after  any  person  so  assessed 
and  notified,  shall  be  guilty  of  any  refusal  or  neglect 
for  which  a  penalty  or  fine  is  prescribed  in  this  Title, 
unless  a  satisfactory  excuse  shall  be  rendered  to  him 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  189 

for  such  refusal  or  neglect,  to  make  complaint  on  oath, 
to  one  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  of  the  town. 

§  44.  The  justice  to  whom  such  complaint  shall  be 
made,  shall  forthwith  issue  a  summons  directed  to 
any  constable  of  the  town,  requiring  him  to  summons 
such  delinquent,  to  appear  forthwith  before  such  jus- 
tice, at  some  place  to  be  specified  in  the  summons,  to 
shew  cause  why  he  should  not  be  fined  according  to 
law  for  such  refusal  or  neglect ;  which  summons  shall 
be  served  personally,  or  by  leaving  a  copy  at  his  per- 
sonal abode. 

§  45.  If,  upon  the  return  of  such  summons,  no  suf- 
ficient cause  shall  be  shown  to  the  contrary,  the  jus- 
tice shall  impose  such  fine  as  is  provided  in  this  Title 
for  the  offence  complained  of,  and  shall  forthwith  is- 
sue a  warrant  under  his  hand  and  seal,  directed  to 
any  constable  of  the  town  where  such  delinquent  shall 
reside,  commanding  him  to  levy  such  fine,  with  the 
costs  of  the  proceedings,  of  the  goods  and  chattels  of 
such  delinquent. 

§  46.  The  constable  to  whom  such  warrant  shall 
be  directed,  shall  forthwith  collect  the  moneys  there- 
in mentioned.  He  shall  pay  the  fine  when  collected, 
to  the  justice  who  issued  the  warrant,  who  is  hereby 
required  to  pay  the  same  to  the  overseer  who  entered 
the  complaint,  to  be  by  him  expended  in  improving 
the  roads  and  bridges  in  the  district  of  which  he  is 
overseer. 

§  47.  Every  penalty  collected  for  a  refusal  or  neglect 
to  appear  and  work  on  the  highways,  shall  be  set  off 
against  the  assessment  upon  which  it  was  founded, 
estimating  every  dollar  collected  as  a  satisfaction  for 
one  day's  work. 


190  APPENDIX. 

§  48.  The  acceptance  by  an  overseer  of  any  excuse 
for  refusal  or  neglect,  shall  not  in  any  case,  exempt 
the  person  excused  from  commuting  for,  or  working, 
the  whole  number  of  days  for  which  he  shall  have 
been  assessed  during  the  year. 

§  49.  Every  overseer  of  highways  shall,  on  or  be- 
fore the  first  day  of  October,  in  each  year,  make  out 
and  deliver  to  the  supervisor  of  his  town,  a  list  of  all  the 
lands  of  non-residents,  and  of  persons  unknown,  which 
were  taxed  on  his  lists,  on  which  the  labor  assessed 
by  the  commissioners  of  highways  has  not  been  paid, 
and  the  amount  of  labor  unpaid ;  and  the  said  over^ 
seer,  previous  to  delivering  such  list,  shall  make  amj 
subscribe  an  affidavit  thereon,  before  some  justice  of 
the  peaee  of  such  town,  that  he  has  given  the  notice 
required  by  the  thirty -fifth  and  thirty-sixth  section  of 
this  Title,  and  that  the  labor  for  which  such  land  is 
returned,  has  not  been  performed 

§  50.  If  any  overseer  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  deliv- 
er such  list  to  the  supervisor,  as  provided  in  the  last 
preceding  section,  or  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  make 
the  affidavit  as  therein  directed,  he  shall,  for  every 
such  offence,  forfeit  the  sum  of  five  dollars,  and  also 
the  amount  of  tax  or  taxes  for  labor  remaining  unpaid, 
at  the  rate  of  sixty-two  and  a  half  cents  for  each  day ; 
to  be  recovered  by  the  commissioners  of  highways  of 
the  town,  and  to  be  applied  by  them  in  making  and 
improving  the  roads  and  bridges  in  such  town. 

§  51.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  supervisors  of  the 
several  towns,  to  receive  the  lists  of  the  overseers  of 
highways,  when  delivered  pursuant  to  the  preceding 
forty-ninth  section,  and  to  lay  the  same  before  the 
board  of  supervisors  of  the  county. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  191 

§  52.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  board  at  their  next 
meeting,  to  cause  the  amount  of  such  arrearages  of 
labor,  (estimating  a  day's  labor  at  sixty-two  and  a  half 
cents)  to  be  levied  on  the  lands  so  returned,  and  to  be 
collected  in  the  same  manner  that  the  contingent 
charges  of  the  county  are  levied  and  collected,  and  to 
order  the  same,  when  collected,  to  be  paid  over  to  the 
commissioners  of  highways  of  the  town,  to  be  by  them 
applied  to  the  construction  and  improvement  of  the 
roads  and  bridges  in  the  district,  for  whose  benefit  the 
labor  was  originally  assessed. 

§  53.  Every  overseer  of  highways  shall,  on  the  se- 
cond Tuesday  next  preceding  the  time  of  holding  the 
annual  town  meeting,  in  his  town  within  the  year  for 
which  he  is  elected  or  anppointed,  render  to  one  of 
the  commissioners  of  highways  of  the  town,  an  ac- 
count in  writing,  verified  by  his  oath,  [which  the  com- 
missioners of  highways  are  authorized  to  administer,]; 
and  containing, 

1.  The  names  of  all  persons  assessed  to  work  on 
the  highways  in  the  district  of  which  he  is  overseer : 

2.  The  names  of  all  those  who  have  actually  work- 
ed on  the  highways,  with  the  number  of  days  they 
have  so  worked : 

3.  The  names  of  all  those  who  have  been  fined^ 
and  the  sums  in  which  they  have  been  fined  : 

4.  The  names  of  all  those  who  have  commuted, 
and  the  manner  in  which  the  moneys  arising  from 
fines  and  commutations  have  been  expended  by  him: 

5.  A  list  of  all  lands  which  he  has  returned  to  the 
supervisor  for  non-payment  of  taxes,  and  the  amount 
of  tax  on  each  tract  of  land  so  returned. 


192  APPENDIX. 

§  54.  Every  such  overseer  shall  also  then  and  there 
pay  to  the  commissioner,  all  moneys  remaining  in 
his  hands  unexpended,  to  be  applied  by  the  commis- 
ioners  in  making  and  improving  the  roads  and  bridges 
in  the  town,  in  such  manner  as  they  shall  direct. 

§  55.  If  any  overseer  shall  refuse  or  neglet  to  ren- 
der such  account,  or  if  having  rendered  the  same,  he 
shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  pay  any  balance  which  may 
then  be  due  from  him,  he  shall,  for  every  such  offence, 
forfeit  the  sum  of  five  dollars,  to  be  recovered  with 
the  balance  of  moneys  remaining  in  his  hands,  by  the 
commissioners  of  highways  of  the  town,  and  to  be  ap- 
plied in  making  and  improving  the  roads  and  bridges. 
It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  of  highways 
to  prosecute  for  such  penalty  in  every  instance  in 
which  no  return  is  made. 

§  56.  Whenever  it  shall  appear  from  the  annual  re- 
turn of  any  overseer  of  highways,  made  in  pursuance 
of  the  fifty-third  section  of  the  sixteenth  Chapter  of 
Title  first  of  the  First  Part  of  the  Revised  Statutes, 
that  any  person  who  was  assessed  to  work  on  the 
highways,  (other  than  non-residents,)  has  neglected  to 
work  the  whole  number  of  days  to  him  assessed,  and 
has  not  commuted  for,  or  otherwise  satisfied  such  defi- 
ciency, then  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners 
of  highways  to  re-assess  such  deficiency  to  the  person 
so  delinquent,  at  the  next  assessment  of  work  for  high- 
way purposes,  and  to  add  to  it  his  annual  assessment. 

§  57.  Such  re-assessment  shall  not  exonerate  any 
overseer  of  highways  from  any  penalty  which  he  may 
have  incurred  under  the  sixteenth  section  of  the  last 
aforesaid  Chapter. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  193 

ART.  IV. —  Of  the  laying  out  of  public  and  private 

roads,  and  of  the  alteration  or  discontinuance 

thereof. 

§  58.  Every  person  liable  to  be  assessed  for  high- 
^way  labor,  may  apply  to  the  commissioners  of  high- 
ways of  the  town  in  which  he  shall  reside,  to  alter  or 
discontinue  any  road,  or  to  lay  out  any  new  road. 
Every  such  application  shall  be  in  writing,  addressed 
to  the  commissioners,  and  signed  by  the  person  ap- 
plying. 

§  59.  Whenever  the  commissioners  of  highways 
shall  lay  out,  alter  or  discontinue  any  road,  either  up- 
on application  to  them  or  otherwise,  they  shall  cause 
a  survey  to  be  made  of  such  road,  and  shall  incorpo- 
rate such  survey  in  an  order  to  be  signed  by  them, 
and  to  be  filed  and  recorded  in  the  office  of  the  town 
clerk,  who  shall  note  the  time  of  recording  the  same. 

§  60.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  town  clerk,  when- 
ever any  order  of  the  commissioners,  for  laying  out, 
altering  or  discontinuing  a  road  shall  be  received  by 
him,  to  post  a  copy  of  such  order  on  the  door  of  the 
house  where  the  town  meeting  is  usually  held ;  and 
the  time  hereinafter  limited  for  appealing  from  any 
such  order,  shall  be  computed  from  the  time  of  re- 
cording the  same. 

§  61.  No  public  or  private  road  shall  be  laid  out 
through  any  orchard  or  garden,  without  the  consent 
of  the  owner  thereof,  if  such  orchard  be  of  the  growth 
of  four  years  or  more,  or  if  such  garden  have  been 
cultivated  for  four  years  or  more,  before  the  laying 
out  of  such  road.  Nor  shall  any  such  road  be  laid 
out  through  any  buildings  ;  or  any  fixtures  or  erec- 
25 


194  APPENDIX. 

tions  for  the  purpose  of  trade  or  manufactures ;  or  any' 
yards  or  enclosures  necessary  to  the  use  and  enjoy- 
ment thereof;  without  the  consent  of  the  owner. 

§  62.  No  highway  shall  be  laid  out  through  enclosed, 
improved  or  cultivated  land,  without  the  consent  of  the 
owner  or  occupant  thereof,  unless  certified  to  be  ne- 
cessary by  the  oath  of  twelve  reputable  freeholders  of 
the  town,  in  the  manner  hereinafter  provided. 

§  63.  Every  person  who  shall  apply  for  the  laying 
out  of  a  highway  through  any  such  land  shall  cause 
notices  in  writing  to  be  posted  up  at  three  of  the  most 
public  places  of  the  town,  specifying,  as  near  as  may 
be,  the  route  of  the  proposed  highway,  the  several 
tracts  of  lands  through  which  the  same  is  proposed 
to  be  laid,  and  the  time  and  place  at  which  the  free- 
holders will  meet  to  examine  the  ground.  Every 
such  notice  shall  be  posted  up  at  least  six  days  before 
the  time  specified  therein  for  the  meeting  of  the  free- 
holders. 

§  64.  If  twelve  reputable  freeholders  of  the  town, 
not  interested  in  the  lands  through  which  the  road  is 
to  be  laid,  nor  of  kin  to  the  owner  thereof,  shall  ap- 
pear at  the  time  and  place  specified  in  the  notice,  they 
shall  then  be  sworn  by  [a  justice  of  the  peace  or]  any 
officer  authorized  to  administer  oaths,  well  and  truly 
to  examine  and  certify,  in  regard  to  the  necessity  and 
propriety  of  the  highway  applied  for. 

§  65.  They  shall  then  personally  examine  the  route 
of  such  highway,  and  shall  hear  any  reason  that  may 
be  offered  for  or  against  laying  out  the  same.  If  they 
shall  be  of  opinion  that  such  highway  is  necesary 
and  proper,  they  shall  make  and  subscribe  a  certifi- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  195 

cate  in  writing  to  that  effect,  which  shall  be  deliver- 
ed to  the  commissioners  of  highways  of  the  town. 

§  66.  Before  the  commissioners  shall  determine  to 
lay  out  the  highway  so  applied  for  and  certified,  they 
shall  cause  notice  in  writing  to  be  given  to  the  occu- 
pant of  the  land  through  which  the  road  is  to  run,  of 
the  time  and  place  at  which  they  will  meet  to  decide 
on  the  application.  The  notice  shall  be  served  by 
delivering  the  same  to  such  occupant,  or  if  he  be  ab- 
sent, by  leaving  the  same  .it  his  dwelling  house  ;  and 
in  either  case,  at  least  three  days  before  the  time  of 
meeting. 

§  67.  The  commissioners  shall  meet  at  the  time 
specified  in  the  notice,  and  shall  hear  any  reasons 
that  may  be  offered  for  or  against  laying  out  the  highr 
way;  If  they  shall  determine  to  lay  out  such  high- 
way, they  shall  make  out  and  subscribe  a  certificate 
of  such  determination,  describing  the  road  so  laid  out, 
particularly,  by  routes  and  bounds  and  by  its  courses 
and  distance,  and  shall  deposite  the  same  with  the 
town  clerk. 

§  68.  The  damages  sustained  by  reason  of  the  lay- 
ing out  and  opening  such  road  may  be  ascertained  by 
the  agreement  of  the  owner  and  the  commissioners  of 
highways,  provided  such  damages  do  not  exceed 
twenty-five  dollars;  and  unless  such  agreement  be 
made,  or  the  owner  of  the  land  shall  in  writing  re- 
lease all  claims  to  damages,  the  same  shall  be  assess- 
ed in  the  manner  prescribed  in  the  next  section,  be- 
fore such  road  shall  be  opened,  or  worked,  or  used. 
Every  such  agreement  and  release  shall  be  filed  in 
the  town  clerk's  office,  and  shall  forever  preclude  such 
owner  from  all  further  claim  for  such  damages. 


196  APPENDIX. 

§  69.  On  the  application  of  the  commissioners  of 
highways,  or  of  the  owner  of  the  land  through  which 
such  road  is  laid  out,  to  any  two  justices  of  the  peace 
of  the  town,  they  shall  issue  their  warrant  to  some 
constable  of  some  other  town  of  the  same  county, 
neither  interested,  nor  of  kin  to  any  person  interest- 
ed, in  the  land  through  which  the  road  is  laid  out ; 
directing  him  to  summon  twelve  disinterested  free- 
holders, residing  in  some  other  town  than  that  in 
which  such  road  is  laid  out,  and  not  of  kin  to  the 
owner  of  such  land,  to  assess  the  damages  sustained 
by  the  laying  out  such  road  ;  and  shall  therein  spe- 
cify the  time  and  place  at  which  the  jury  shall  meet. 

§  70.  Upon  such  freeholders  appearing,  the  justices 
who  issued  the  warrant,  shall  draw  by  lot,  six  of  the 
names  of  the  persons  attending,  to  serve  as  a  jury; 
and  the  first  six  persons  drawn,  who  shall  be  free 
from  all  legal  exceptions,  shall  be  the  jury  to  assess 
the  said  damages. 

§  71.  In  all  cases  of  the  assessment  of  such  dama- 
ges, the  persons  by  whom  the  assessment  is  to  be 
made,  shall  view  and  examine  the  premises ;  and  be- 
fore making  their  determination,  the  freeholders  ma- 
king the  same,  shall  be  sworn  well  and  truly  to  deter- 
mine and  assess  such  damages. 

§  72.  The  verdict  of  the  jury  assessing  such  dama- 
ges, shall  be  received  and  certified  by  the  two  justices 
who  issued  the  warrant  for  summoning  them,  and 
shall  be  delivered  by  them  to  the  commissioners  of 
highways  of  the  town. 

§  73.  Such  commissioners  shall  cause  a  copy  of  the 
said  verdict,  with  a  statement  of  the  charges  and  ex- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  197 

penseSj  to  be  delivered  to  the  supervisor  of  the  town, 
who  shall  lay  the  same  before  the  board  of  supervisors 
of  the  county.  The  board  shall  have  power  to  ex- 
amine into  the  principles  on  which  such  assessment 
shall  have  been  made,  and  into  the  fairness  and  jus- 
tice thereof,  and  to  increase  or  reduce  the  damages, 
as  in  their  judgment  shall  be  just  and  reasonable. 

§  74.  The  amount  of  damages,  as  finally  settled  by 
the  board  of  supervisors,  or  as  liquidated  by  the  com- 
missioners of  highways,  as  provided  in  the  sixty- 
eighth  section  of  this  Title,  together  with  the  charges 
of  the  commissioners  of  highways,  justices,  surveyors 
and  other  persons  or  officers  employed  in  making  the 
assessment,  shall  be  levied  and  collected  in  the  town 
within  which  the  highway  shall  be  situated.  The 
moneys  so  collected,  shall  be  paid  to  the  commission^ 
ers  of  highways  of  the  same  town,  who  shall  pay  to 
the  owner  the  sum  assessed  to  him,  and  appropriate 
the  residue  to  satisfy  the  charges. 

§  75.  Where  any  person  shall  be  the  owner  of  any 
land  over  which  any  highway  shall  run,  and  such 
highway  shall  be  discontinued,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
by  reason  of  some  other  road  to  be  established  and 
laid  out  under  this  Title,  through  the  lands  of  the 
same  person,  the  persons  who  shall  assess  the  dama- 
ges shall  take  into  calculation  the  value  of  the  road  so 
discontinued,  and  the  benefit  resulting  to  such  person 
by  reason  of  such  discontinuance,  and  shall  deduct 
the  same  from  the  damages  assessed  for  the  opening 
and  laying  out  such  new  road ;  and  thereupon  the 
owner  of  the  land  may  enclose  so  much  of  the  high- 
way so  discontinued,  as  shall  belong  to  him. 


198  APPENDIX. 

§  76.  When  the  commissioners  of  highways  of  any 
town  shall  disagree  with  the  commissioners  of  any 
other  town  in  the  same  county,  relating  to  the  laying 
out  of  a  new  road,  or  the  alteration  of  an  old  road, 
extending  into  both  towns ;  or  when  the  commission- 
ers of  a  town  in  one  county  shall  disagree  with  the 
commissioners  of  a  town  in  another  county,  relative 
to  laying  out  a  new  road,  or  altering  an  old  road, 
which  shall  extend  into  both  counties ;  the  commis- 
sioners of  both  towns  shall  meet  together  at  the  re- 
quest of  either  disagreeing  commissioners,  and  make 
their  determination  upon  such  subject  of  disagree- 
ment. 

§  77.  Whenever  it  shall  become  necessary  to  have 
a  highway  upon  the  line  between  two  towns,  such 
highway  shall  be  laid  out  by  two  or  more  of  the  com- 
missioners of  highways  of  each  of  said  towns,  either 
upon  such  line,  or  as  near  thereto  as  the  convenience 
of  the  ground  will  admit ;  and  they  may  so  vary  the 
same  either  to  the  one  or  the  other  side  of  such  line, 
as  they  may  think  proper. 

§  78,  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  same  commission- 
ers, when  they  lay  out  such  highway,  to  divide  it  into 
two  or  more  road  districts,  in  such  manner,  that  the 
labor  and  expense  of  opening,  working  and  keeping 
in  repair  such  highway,  through  each  of  the  said  dis- 
tricts, may  be  equal  as  near  as  may  be,  and  to  allot 
an  equal  number  of  the  said  districts  to  each  of  the 
said  towns. 

§79.  Each  district  shall  be  considered  as  wholly 
belonging  to  the  town  to  which  it  shall  be  allotted, 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  and  improving  the  road, 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  199 

and  for  keeeping  it  in  repair;  and  the  commissioners 
shall  cause  such  highway,  and  the  partition  and  al- 
lotment thereof,  to  be  recorded  in  the  office  of  the 
town  clerk  in  each  of  their  respective  towns. 

§  SO.  All  highways  heretofore  laid  out  upon  the 
line  between  any  two  towns,  shall  be  divided,  allotted, 
recorded  and  kept  in  repair,  in  the  manner  above  di- 
rected. 

§  81.  "Whenever  application  shall  be  made  to  the 
commissioners  of  highways  of  any  town,  for  a  private 
road,  they  shall  summon  twelve  disinterested  freehold- 
ers of  the  town  where  the  land  through  which  such 
road  is  proposed  to  be  laid  out,  is  situated,  to  meet  on 
a  day  certain  ;  of  which  day,  notice  shall  be  given  to 
the  owner  or  occupant  of  such  land.  Such  freehold- 
ers, when  met,  shall  be  sworn  as  above  provided,  afid 
shall  then  proceed  to  view  the  lands  through  which 
such  road  is  applied  for. 

§  82.  If  they  shall  determine  that  such  road  is  ne- 
cessary, they  shall  make  and  subscribe  a  certificate  in 
manner  aforesaid,  and  the  commissioners  shall  there- 
upon lay  out  the  road,  and  cause  a  record  thereof  to 
be  made  in  the  town  clerk's  office.  The  damages  of 
the  owner  of  the  land  through  which  such  road  shall 
be  laid  out,  shall  be  ascertained  or  asssessed  in  like 
manner  as  if  the  same  was  a  public  highway,  and 
such  damages  shall  be  paid  by  the  person  applying 
for  the  road. 

§  83.  Every  such  private  road,  when  so  laid  out, 

shall  be  for  the  use  of  such  applicant,  his  heirs  and 

assigns ;  but  not  to  be  converted  to  any  other  use  or 

purpose,  than  that  of  a  road.     Nor  shall  the  occupant 

I 


200  APPENDIX. 

or  owner  of  the  land  through  which  said  road  shall 
be  laid  out,  be  permitted  to  use  the  same  as  a  road, 
unless  he  shall  have  signified  his  intention  of  so  ma- 
king use  of  the  same,  to  the  jury  or  commissioners, 
who  ascertained  the  damages  sustained  by  laying  out 
such  road,  and  before  such  damages  were  so  ascer- 
tained. 

§  84.  All  public  roads  to  be  laid  out  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  highways  of  any  town,  shall  not  be  less 
than  three  rods  wide,  and  all  private  roads  shall  not 
be  more  than  three  rods  wide. 

§  85.  Whenever  application  shall  be  made  for  the 
discontinuance  of  an  old  road,  on  the  ground  that  it 
has  become  useless  and  unnecessary,  the  commission- 
ers of  highways,  to  whom  such  application  shall  be 
made,  shall  summon  twelve  disinterested  freeholders 
of  the  town,  to  meet  on  a  day  certain,  to  consider 
such  application.  Such  freeholders  when  met,  shall 
be  sworn  well  and  truly  to  examine  and  certify  in  re- 
gard to  the  propriety  of  such  discontinuance. 

•§  86.  They  shall  then  proceed  to  view  such  road, 
and  if  they  shall  be  of  opinion  that  the  same  is  use- 
less and  unnecessary,  they  shall  make  and  subscribe 
a  certificate  in  writing  to  that  effect,  which  shall  be 
delivered  to  the  commissioners  of  highwaySj  who 
shall  thereupon  proceed  to  decide  upon  such  applica- 
tion. 

§  87.  All  applications,  certificates  and  other  papers 
relating  to  the  laying  out,  altering  or  discontinuing 
of  any  road,  shall  be  filed  by  the  commissioners  of 
highways,  as  soon  as  they  shall  have  decided  there- 
on, in  the  office  of  the  town  clerk  of  the  town. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.7  201 

§  88.  Every  person  who  shall  conceive  himself  ag- 
grieved by  any  determination  of  the  commissioners 
of  highways,  either  in  laying  out,  altering  or  discon- 
tinuing, or  in  refusing  to  lay  out,  alter  or  discontinue 
any  road,  may  at  any  time  within  sixty  days  there- 
after, appeal  to  any  three  of  the  judges  of  the  court 
of  common  pleas  of  the  county,  in  which  such  road 
is  situated.  But  an  appeal  by  one  person,  and  a  de- 
cision thereon,  shall  not  conclude  nor  affect  the 
rights  of  any  other  person,  who  shall  appeal  within 
the  limited  period. 

§  89.  The  judges  to  whom  the  first  appeal  from 
any  such  determination  shall  be  made,  shall  have  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  of  all  appeals  from  the  same  de- 
termination, to  the  end  that  their  decision  when  made 
may  embrace  the  whole  subject ;  and  for  this  purpose 
they  shall  suspend  all  proceedings  upon  the  appeal 
first  made,  and  upon  all  other  appeals  received  by 
them  from  such  determination,  until  the  time  limited 
for  such  appeals  shall  have  expired. 

§  90.  Every  such  appeal  shall  be  in  writing,  ad- 
dressed to  the  judges,  and  signed  by  the  party  appeal- 
ing. It  shall  briefly  state  the  ground  upon  which  it  is 
made,  and  whether  it  is  brought  to  reverse  entirely 
the  determination  of  the  commissioners,  or  only  to  re- 
verse a  part  thereof;  and  in  the  latter  case,  it  shall 
specify  what  part. 

§  91.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  judges  to  whom  the 
appeal  is  made,  to  proceed  thereon  as  soon  as  may  be 
convenient.  Where  the  determination  appealed  from 
was  against  an  application  for  laying  out,  altering  or 
discontinuing  a  road,  the  judges  shall  give  notice  to 
26 


202  APPENDIX. 

the  commissioners  by  whom  such  determination  was 
made.  Where  the  appeal  is  from  a  determination  in 
favor  of  an  application  for  laying  out,  altering  or 
discontinuing  a  road,  the  notice  shall  be  given  to  the 
commissioners,  and  to  one  or  more  of  the  applicants 
for  such  road.  In  all  cases,  the  notice  shall  specify 
the  time  and  place,  at  which  the  judges  will  convene 
to  hear  the  appeal. 

§92.  Every  such  notice  shall  be  served  at  least 
eight  days  before  the  time  mentioned  therein,  by  de- 
livering the  same  to  one  of  the  commissioners  whose 
determination  is  appealed  from,  or  by  leaving  the 
same  at  his  dwelling-house.  If  the  notice  be  also  di- 
rected to  an  applicant,  it  shall  be  served  in  the  same 
manner. 

§  93.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  judges  to  convene 
at  the  time  and  place  mentioned  in  the  notice,  and  to 
hear  the  proofs  and  allegations  of  the  parties.  They 
shall  have  power  to  issue  process  to  compel  the  attend- 
ance of  witnesses,  and  may  adjourn  from  time  to  time, 
as  may  be  necessary.  Their  decision,  or  that  of  any 
two  of  them,  shall  be  conclusive  in  the  premises,  and 
every  such  decision,  shall  be  reduced  to  writing,  be 
signed  by  the  judges  making  it,  and  be  filed  by  them 
in  the  office  of  the  town  clerk  of  the  town,  who  shall 
record  the  same. 

§  94.  Every  such  judge  shall  be  entitled  to  receive 
two  dollars  for  every  day  employed  in  the  hearing 
and  the  decision  of  such  appeal,  to  be  paid  by  the  par- 
ty appealing  where  the  determination  of  the  commis- 
sioner shall  be  affirmed ;  but  where  it  is  reversed,  to 
be  a  charge  against  the  county. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  203 

§  95.  Where  an  appeal  shall  have  been  made  from 
a  determination  of  commissioners  refusing  to  lay  out 
or  alter  a  road,  and  the  judges  shall  reverse  such  de- 
termination, such  judges  shall  lay  out  or  alter  the 
road,  applied  for  ;  and  in  doing  so,  shall  proceed  in 
the  same  manner  in  which  commissioners  of  high- 
ways are  directed  to  proceed,  in  the  like  cases.  Such 
road  shall  be  opened  by  the  commisssioners  of  the 
town,  in  the  same  manner  as  if  laid  out  by  themselves. 

§  96.  In  case  the  office  of  any  one  of  the  judges  to 
whom  such  appeal  shall  be  made,  shall  become  va- 
cant before  the  determination  of  such  appeal,  it  shall 
be  the  duty  of  the  remaining  judges  named  therein, 
to  associate  with  themselves  another  of  the  judges  of 
the  same  court,  who  shall  act  with  them  in  all  subse- 
quent proceedings,  in  the  same  manner  as  if  he  had 
been  originally  named  in  such  appeal. 

§  97.  No  road  which  has  been  fixed  by  the  decision 
of  the  judges  on  an  appeal  to  them,  shall  be  discontin- 
ued or  altered,  so  long  as  such  judges,  or  either  of 
them  shall  continue  in  commission,  except  by  the  or- 
der of  the  same  judges,  or  such  of  them  as  continue 
in  commission,  joined  with  such  other  judge  or  judges, 
as  shall  be  necessary  to  make  three;  such  additional 
judge  or  judges,  to  be  selected  by  the  person  applying 
for  the  discontinuance  or  alteration. 

§98.  If  no  one  of  the  said  judges  shall  continue  in 
commission,  such  application  shall  be  made  to  any 
three  of  the  judges  of  the  same  court,  not  having  any 
interest  in  the  road  so  desired  to  be  discontinued  or 
altered. 

§99.  No  application  made  under  either  of  the  two 


204  APPENDIX. 

last  preceding  sections,  shall  be  acted  upon  by  the 
judges,  unless  the  same  be  accompanied  by  a  certifi- 
cate, signed  by  the  commissioners  of  highways  of  the 
town  in  which  the  road  is  situated,  stating  their  ap- 
probation of  such  application ;  and  before  the  judges 
decide  thereon,  they  shall  proceed  to  view  the  road, 
so  desired  to  be  discontinued  or  altered.  They  shall 
be  entitled  to  the  same  compensation  as  above  pro- 
vided, to  be  paid  by  the  applicant. 

§  100.  Whenever  the  commissioners  of  highways 
shall  have  laid  out  any  public  highway,  through  any 
enclosed,  cultivated  or  improved  lands,  in  conformity 
to  the  provisions  of  this  Title,  and  their  determination 
shall  not  have  been  appealed  from,  they  shall  give 
the  owner  or  occupant  of  the  land  through  which 
such  road  shall  have  been  laid,  sixty  days'  notice  in 
writing,  to  remove  his  fences.  If  such  owner  shall 
not  remove  his  fences  within  the  sixty  days,  the  com- 
missioners shall  cause  such  fences  to  be  removed,  and 
shall  direct  the  road  to  be  opened  and  worked. 

§  101.  If  the  determination  of  the  commissioners 
shall  have  been  appealed  from,  then  the  sixty  days' 
notice  shall  be  given,  after  the  decision  of  the  judges 
upon  such  appeal,  shall  have  been  filed  in  the  office 
of  the  town  clerk  of  the  town. 

§  102.  The  acts  and  doings  of  the  commissioners 
of  highways  of  the  several  towns  in  this  state,  or  of 
any  two  of  them,  in  laying  out,  altering  or  discon- 
tinuing any  road  or  highway,  since  the  first  day  of 
December,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  five,  and 
prior  to  the  fourteenth  day  of  April,  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  twenty-six,  are  confirmed  from 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  205 

the  last  mentioned  day ;  provided  such  commission- 
ers, or  any  two  of  them,  shall  have  caused  a  survey 
of  such  roads  or  highways  to  be  filed  and  recorded  in 
the  office  of  the  town  clerk  of  the  town.  But  such 
confirmation  shall  not  affect  any  decision  of  the 
judges  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  made  prior  to 
the  fourteenth  day  of  April,  one  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  twenty-six,  confirming  or  reversing  the 
determination  of  the  said  commissioners;  nor  any 
appeal  from  such  determination,  made  within  six 
months  after  that  day ;  nor  any  suits  or  proceedings 
which  on  that  day  were  pending,  at  law  or  in  equity. 

§  103.  Every  public  highway  already  laid  out,  that 
shall  not  have  been  opened  and  worked  within  six 
years  from  the  time  of  its  being  so  laid  out,  and  every 
such  highway  hereafter  to  be  laid  out,  that  shall  not 
be  opened  and  worked,  within  the  like  period,  shall 
cease  to  be  a  road  for  any  purpose  whatever. 

§  104.  All  public  highways  now  in  use,  heretofore 
laid  out  and  allowed  by  any  law  of  this  state,  of 
which  a  record  shall  have  been  made  in  the  office  of 
the  clerk  of  the  county  or  town ;  and  all  roads  not 
recorded,  which  have  been  or  shall  have  been  used 
as  public  highways,  for  twenty  years  or  more  ;  shall 
be  deemed  public  highways,  but  may  be  altered  in 
conformity  to  the  provisions  of  this  Title. 

§  105.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commissioners  of 
highways,  to  order  the  overseers  of  highways  to  open 
all  roads  to  the  width  of  two  rods  at  least,  which  they 
shall  judge  to  have  been  used  as  public  highways  for 
twenty  years. 


206  APPENDIX. 

ART.  V. — Regulations  and  penalties  concerning 

the  obstructions  of  highways,  and  encroachments 

thereon. 

§  106.  Whoever  shall  obstruct  any  highway,  or 
shall  fill  up  or  place  any  obstruction  in  any  ditch 
constructed  for  draining  the  water  from  any  highway, 
shall  forfeit  for  every  such  offence,  the  sum  of  five 
dollars. 

§  107.  In  every  case  where  a  highway  shall  have 
been  laid  out,  and  the  same  has  been  or  shall  be  en- 
croached upon  by  fences,  erected  by  any  occupant  of 
the  land  through  or  by  which  such  highway  runs, 
the  commissioners  of  highways  of  the  town,  shall,  if 
in  their  opinion  it  be  deemed  necessary,  order  such 
fences  to  be  removed,  so  that  such  highway  may  be 
of  the  breadth  originally  intended.  The  commission- 
ers making  the  order,  shall  cause  the  same  to  be  re_ 
duced  to  writing,  and  signed.  They  shall  also  give 
notice  in  writing,  to  the  occupant  of  the  land,  to  re- 
move such  fences  within  sixty  days.  Every  such  or- 
der and  notice  shall  specify  the  breadth  of  the  road 
orginally  intended,  the  extent  of  the  encroachment, 
and  the  place  or  places  in  which  the  same  shall  be. 

§108.  If  such  removal  shall  not  bo  made,  within 
sixty  days  after  the  service  of  such  notice,  the  occu- 
pant to  whom  the  notice  shall  be  given,  shall  forfeit 
the  sum  of  fifty  cents  for  every  day,  after  the  expira- 
tion of  that  time,  for  which  such  fences  shall  continue 
un  re  moved. 

§109.  If  the  occupant  to  whom  notice  is  given, 
shall  deny  such  encroachment,  the  commissioners,  or 
some  one  of  them,  shall  apply  to  any  justice  of  the 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  207 

peace  of  the  county,  for  a  precept  directed  to  any  con- 
stable of  the  town,  to  summon  twelve  freeholders 
thereof,  to  meet  at  a  certain  day  and  place,  to  be  spe- 
cified in  such  precept,  and  not  less  than  four  days  after 
the  issuing  thereof,  to  inquire  into  the  premises.  The 
constable  to  whom  such  precept  shall  be  directed, 
shall  give  at  least  three  day's  notice  to  the  commis- 
sioners of  highways  of  the  town,  and  to  the  occupant 
of  the  land,  of  the  time  and  place  at  which  such  free- 
holders are  to  meet. 

§  110.  On  the  day  specified  in  the  precept,  the  jury 
so  summoned,  shall  be  sworn  by  such  justice,  well 
and  truly  to  inquire  whether  any  such  encroachment 
has  been  made,  and  by  whom.  Such  witnesses  as 
may  be  produced  by  either  party,  shall  also  be  sworn 
by  such  justice ;  and  the  jury  shall  hear  the  proofs 
and  allegations  which  may  be  produced  and  submit- 
ted. 

§  111.  If  the  jury  find  that  any  encroachment  has 
been  made,  they  shall  make  and  subscribe  a  certificate 
in  writing,  stating  the  particulars  of  such  encroach^ 
ment,  and  by  whom  made ;  which  shall  be  filed  in 
the  office  of  the  town  clerk.  The  occupant  of  the 
land,  whether  such  encroachment  shaM  have  been 
made  by  him,  or  by  any  former  occupant,- shall  re- 
move  his  fences  within  sixty  days  after  the  filing  of 
such  certificate,  under  the  penalty  provided  in  the  one 
hundred  and  eighth  section  of  this  Title.  He  shall 
also  pay  the  costs  of  such  inquiry;  and  if  the  same 
shall  not  be  paid  within  ten  days,  the  justice  shall  is- 
sue a  warrant  for  the  collection  thereof,  in  the  man- 
ner provided  in  the  forty-fifth  section  of  this  Title. 


208  APPENDIX. 

§  112.  If  the  jury  find  that  no  encroachment  has 
been  made,  they  shall  so  certify,  and  shall  also  ascer- 
tain and  certify  the  damages  which  the  then  occupant 
shall  have  sustained  by  such  proceeding;  which,  to- 
gether with  the  costs  thereof,  shall  be  paid  by  the 
commissioners,  and  shall  be  a  charge  in  their  favor 
against  the  town  by  which  they  shall  have  been 
elected. 

§  113.  No  .person  shall  be  required  to  remove  any 
fence  under  the  preceding  provisions  of  this  Article, 
except  between  the  first  day  of  April  and  the  first  day 
of  November  in  any  year. 

§  114.  If  any  tree  shall  fall,  or  be  fallen  by  any  per- 
son from  any  enclosed  land  into  any  highway,  any 
person  may  give  notice  to  the  occupant  of  the  land 
from  which  such  tree  shall  have  fallen,  to  remove  the 
same  within  two  days.  If  such  tree  shall  not  be  re- 
moved within  that  time,  but  shall  continue  in  such 
highway,  the  occupant  of  the  land  shall  forfeit  the 
sum  of  fifty  cents  for  every  day  thereafter,  until  such 
tree  shall  be  removed. 

§  115.  In  case  any  person  shall  cut  down  any  tree 
on  land  not  occupied  by  him,  so  that  it  shall  fall  into 
any  highway,  river  or  stream,  unless  by  the  order  and 
Consent  of  the  occupant,  the  person  so  offending,  shall 
forfeit  to  such  occupant,  the  sum  of  one  dollar  for  ev- 
ery tree  so  fallen,  and  the  like  sum  for  every  day  the 
same  shall  remain  in  such  highway,  river  or  stream. 

-§  116.  Whoever  shall  cut,  or  cause  to  be  cut  down, 
any  tree,  so  that  the  same  ehall  fall  into  any  river  or 
stream,  which  now  is  or  hereafter  shall  be  declared  a 
public  highway,  and  shall  not  remove  the  same  out 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  209 

of  such  river  or  stream,  within  twenty-four  hours 
thereafter,  shall  forfeit  five  dollars  for  every  tree  so 
cut  down  and  left  remaining. 

§  117.  No  swinging  or  other  gates  shall  be  allowed 
on  any  public  highway,  laid  out  by  virtue  of  this 
Title,  or  which  has  heretofore  been  laid  out,  other 
than  such  public  highways  as  run  through  lands 
liable  to  be  overflowed  by  the  waters  of  the  adjacent 
rivers  or  streams,  in  such  manne'r  as  to  remove  the 
fence  thereon. 

§  118.  Such  gates  shall  be  erected  and  kept  ill  good 
repair,  by  the  overseers  of  highways  of  the  town,  at 
the  proper  costs  and  charges  of  the  occupant  of  the 
land,  for  whose  benefit  the  same  shall  be  erected. 

§  119.  If  more  than  one  gate  shall  be  erected,  and 
the  intermediate  land  between  the  gates,  at  the  extre- 
mities of  such  lands,  shall  be  in  the  occupation  of 
more  than  one  person  benefitted  by  such  gates,  the 
whole  charge  of  erecting  and  keeping  the  same  in  re- 
pair, shall  be  borne  by  all  the  occupants  benefitted 
thereby,  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  land  each  oc- 
cupies adjoining  the  highway,  between  the  gates  at 
the  extremities  aforesaid. 

§  120.  The  overseer  of  every  road  district  in  which 
such  gates  shall  be,  shall,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of 
November  in  every  year,  make  out  and  file  with  the 
town  clerk,  a  statement  of  the  charges  incurred  in  the 
erection  or  repairing  of  such  gates,  with  the  name  of 
the  person  bound  to  defray  the  same ;  which  account 
shall  be  verified  by  the  oath  of  such  overseer.  If 
more  than  one  person  is  liable  to  defray  such  charges, 
the  statement  shall  also  contain  an  apportionment 
27 


210  APPENDIX. 

thereof  between  such  persons,  stating  the  amount  to 
be  paid  by  each. 

§  121.  The  overseer  shall,  within  ten  days  after 
filing  the  statement,  demand  of  every  person  bound 
to  pay  such  charges,  or  to  contribute  thereto,  the  sum 
due  from  him  according  to  such  statement ;  and  if  any 
person  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  pay  such  moneys 
within  six  days  after  demand,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of 
the  overseer  to  make  complaint  to  a  justice  of  the 
peace  of  the  town,  and  the  like  proceedings  shall  be 
had  for  the  recovery  of  such  moneys,  as  in  the  recov- 
ery of  fines,  for  refusing  or  neglecting  to  work  on  the 
highways. 

§  122.  The  commissioners  of  highways  shall  file  an 
account  of  such  gates  in  the  town  clerk's  office ;  and 
if  any  person  shall  open  any  such  gate,  and  shall  not, 
immediately  after  having  passed  the  same,  close  it,  on 
shall  wilfully  or  unnecessarily  ride  over  any  grounds 
adjoining  the  road  on  which  such  gates  shall  be  per- 
mitted, he  shall  forfeit  to  the  party  injured,  treble 
damages. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.          211 


TURNPIKE  CORPORATIONS. 

ART.  I. — Of  the  mode  of  incorporating  Turnpike 

Companies^  and  of  the  choiee  and  powers  of  the 

directors. 

SECTION  1.  AH  such  persons  as  shall  hereafter  be 
incorporated  by  an  act  of  the  legislature,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  a  turnpike  road,  shall  be  a  body  cor- 
porate, by  the  name  given  in  the  act  of  incorporation ; 
and  as  such,  they  and  their  successors  shall  have 
power  to  purchase,  hold  and  enjoy  such  real  and  per- 
sonal estate,  not  exceeding  the  amount  to  be  prescri- 
bed in  such  act,  as  shall  be  necessary  to  fulfil  the  ends 
of  their  incorporation. 

§  2.  Each  of  the  persons  who  shall  be  named  in 
such  act,  as  a  commissioner  for  receiving  subscrip- 
tions, shall  furnish  himself  with  a  book  for  that  pur- 
pose, which  shall  be  kept  open  for  two  years,  unless 
one-sixth  of  the  whole  number  of  shares  shall  be  soon- 
er subscribed. 

§  3.  Each  subscriber  shall  pay  to  the  commissioner 
receiving  his  subscription,  and  at  that  time,  on  each 
share  that  he  shall  subscribe,  one-tenth  of  the  sum 
fixed  in  the  act  of  incorporation,  as  the  amount  of  one 
share,  and  the  residue  to  the  president  and  directors 
to  be  elected,  at  such  time  and  place,  as  they  shall 
from  time  to  time  require.  The  shares  subscribed 
shall  be  deemed  and  considered  to  be  personal  estate. 

§  4.  As  soon  as  one-sixth  part  of  the  whole  number 


212  APPENDIX1. 

of  shares  fixed  in  such  act,  as  the  capital  of  the  corpo- 
ration, shall  have  been  subscribed,  the  commissioners 
shall,  by  advertisement  to  be  published  in  two  of  the 
public  newspapers  printed  nearest  to  the  route  of  the 
road,  give  at  least  thirty  days'  notice,  of  the  time  and 
place,  when  and  where,  the  subscribers  shall  meet  to 
choose  directors. 

§  5,  At  the  election  so  appointed,  the  commission- 
ers present  shall  preside ;  and  the  subscribers  present, 
or  their  proxies,  by  a  plurality  of  votes,  shall  elect  by 
ballot  nine  stockholders,  to  be  directors  of  the  corpo- 
ration for  the  ensuing  year. 

§  6.  The  commissioners  shall  deliver  their  respect- 
ive subscription  books,  to  the  directors  so  chosen  at 
their  first  meeting,  and  shall  then  pay  over  to  such 
directors,  the  moneys  received  by  them,  respectively, 
on  such  subscriptions. 

§  7.  An  election  for  directors  shall  thereafter  be  an- 
nually held,  on  the  same  day  of  the  same  month  on 
which  the  first  election  was  held ;  and  at  each  elec- 
tion, including  the  first,  the  stockholders  present,  by 
a  plurality  of  votes,  shall  elect  by  ballot,  three  per- 
sons, to  preside  at  the  next  succeeding  election. 

§  8.  If  an  annual  election  shall  not  be  held  on  the 
day  fixed  by  law,  it  shall  be  held  in  the  same  manner, 
and  with  the  like  effect,  on  some  early  day,  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  directors  then  in  office,  who  shall  give 
and  publish  the  same  notice  thereof,  as  is  required  in 
respect  to  the  first  election  ;  and  who  after  the  day  on 
which  such  election  ought  to  have  been  held,  shall  be 
incapacitated  from  doing  any  act  as  directors,  except 
such  as  may  be  necessary  to  give  effect  to  the  election 
so  to  be  appointed. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  213 

§  9.  The  persons  presiding  at  each  election,  shall 
immediately  after  receiving  the  ballots,  openly  esti- 
mate the  votes,  and  thereupon  make  and  subscribe  a 
certificate  of  the  result.  Of  the  first  election,  they 
shall  make  a  return  to  the  directors  chosen,  at  their 
first  meeting  thereafter. 

§10.  Each  stockholder,  in  person  or  by  proxy, 
shall,  at  each  election,  be  entitled,  on  the  shares  then 
held  by  him,  to  one  vote  for  each  share,  to  the  num- 
ber of  ten,  and  for  every  five  shares  above  that  num- 
ber, to  one  additional  vote. 

§11.  Five  directors  shall  be  a  board  for  the  trans- 
action of  business,  and  the  acts  of  a  majority  of  the 
board  shall  bind  the  corporation. 

§  12.  The  directors,  at  their  first  meeting  after  their 
election,  shall  elect  by  ballot  one  of  their  number  as 
president. 

§  13.  The  board  shall  supply  every  vacancy  that 
may  occur  in  the  office  of  a  director,  and  the  person 
chosen  shall  hold  his  office  until  the  next  annual 
election.  They  shall  also  supply  from  the  directors, 
every  vacancy  that  shall  occur  in  the  office  of  presi- 
dent; and  one  of  the  members  present  shall  be  cho- 
sen by  a  plurality  of  votes,  to  preside  at  every  meeting 
of  the  board,  from  which  the  president  shall  be  absent. 

§  14.  The  president  and  directors  shall  have  power, 
and  it  shall  be  their  duty, 

1.  To  meet  from  time  to  time,  at  such  place  as  they 
may  deem  expedient : 

2.  To  make  such  by-laws,  rules  and  regulations,  as 
in  their  judgment,  the  affairs  of  the  corporation  shall 
require : 


214  APPENDIX. 

3.  To  appoint  such  subordinate  officers,  artists  and 
workmen,  as  they  shall  deem  necessary  to  execute  the 
business  of  the  corporation : 

4.  To  continue  to  receive  subscriptions  of  shares, 
until  their  whole  capital  stock  shall  be  subscribed,  un- 
less it  shall  have  been  ascertained,  that  a  less  sum 
will  be  sufficient  to  fulfil  the  ends  of  their  incorpora- 
tion: 

5.  To  demand  at  such  time  and  in  such  proportion 
as  they  shall  see  fit,  from  the  respective  stockholders, 
the  sums  of  money  due  on  their  respective  shares, 
under  pain  of  the  forfeiture  of  such  shares,  and  of  all 
previous  payments  thereon,  to  the  corporation : 

6.  To  declare  by  a  by-law  in  what  manner  and 
under  what  restrictions,  the  shares  of  their  capital 
stock  shall  be  transferrable : 

7.  To  construct,  complete,  and  keep  in  constant 
repair,  the  road,  with  all  the  necessary  buildings  and 
appurtenances,  for  the  making  of  which  they  shall 
have  been  incorporated : 

8.  To  keep  a  fair  and  just  account  of  all  tolls  re- 
ceived, and  of  all  moneys  disbursed,  and  deducting- 
costs  and  charges,  to  make  and  declare  a  dividend  of 
the  clear  profits  and  income  of  the  road,  among  the 
stockholders,  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  May.  and  the 
first  Tuesday  of  November,  in  every  year : 

9.  To  publish  a  notice  of  each  dividend,  in  one  or 
more  of  the  public  newspapers  printed  nearest  to  the 
route  of  the  road,  and  of  the  time  and  place  of  the 
payment  thereof,  and  to  pay  the  same  accordingly: 

10.  To  report  to  the  comptroller,  within  six  months 
after  the  road  shall  be  completed,  an  account  of  the 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  215 

expenses  of  its  construction,  and  to  exhibit  annually 
to  the  comptroller,  an  account  of  the  sums  arising 
from  the  tolls,  of  the  disbursements  and  of  the  divi- 
dends actually  made  within  the  year, 

§  15.  Every  company  so  incorporated  shall  cease  to 
be  a  body  corporate, 

1.  If  within  two  years  from  their  incorporation',' 
they  shall  not  have  commenced  the  construction  of 
the  road  described  in  the  act  of  incorporation :  and 

2.  If  within  five  years  from  such  incorporation, 
such  road  shall  not  be  completed  according  to  the 
provisions  of  this  Title,  and  of  the  act  of  incorpora- 
tion. 

§  16.  Every  such  corporation  may  be  dissolved  by 
the  legislature,  when  by  the  income  arising  from  tolls, 
it  shall  have  been  compensated  for  all  moneys  expend- 
ed in  purchasing,  making,  repairing  and  taking  care 
of  its  road,  and  have  received  in  addition  thereto,  an 
average  annual  interest  at  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent; 
and  on  such  dissolution,  all  the  rights  and  property  of 
such  corporation,  shall  vest  in  the  people  ol  this  state. 

ART.  II. — Of  the  construction  of  the  road,  and  of  the 

appraisement  of  damages. 

§  17.  The  road  directed  to  be  made  by  each  com- 
pany so  incorporated,  shall  be  laid  out  by  three,  OF 
any  two  of  three,  commissioners  to  be  appointed  by 
the  governor :  such  commissioners  must  not  be  inte- 
rested in  any  turnpike  road,  nor  live  in  a  county 
through  which  the  road  directed  shall  pass. 

§  18.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  commissioners, 

1.  To  lay  out  the  road  directed,  without  favor  or 


216  APPENDIX. 

partiality,  according  to  their  best  judgment  and  un- 
derstanding, in  such  manner  as  shall  best  promote 
the  objects  of  the  corporation,  and  the  interests  of  the 
public : 

2.  To  cause  to  be  made  an  accurate  map  of  their 
survey  of  such  road,  in  every  county  through  which 
it  shall  pass,  designating  therein  the  several  particu- 
lar points  near  or  through  which  it  passes,  and  to  de- 
posit and  file  such  map  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the 
county. 

§  19.  Each  commissioner,  for  each  day  he  shall  be 
necessarily  employed  in  the  performance  of  such  du- 
ty, shall  receive  the  sum  of  three  dollars,  to  be  paid> 
together  with  the  expenses  of  surveys  and  maps,  by 
the  corporation  to  which  the  road  shall  belong. 

§  20.  Such  road  shall  be  constructed  by  the  presi- 
dent and  directors  of  such  corporation,  in  the  manner 
following : 

1.  It  shall  be  laid  out  not  less  than  four  rods  wide, 
and  twenty-two  feet  of  such  width  shall  be  bedded 
with  stone,  gravel,  sound  wood,  or  other  hard  sub- 
stance, well  compacted,  and  of  sufficient  depth  to  se- 
cure a  good  and  solid  foundation : 

2.  It  shall  be  faced  with  gravel  or  broken  stone>  of 
a  depth  not  less  than  nine  inehes,  in  such  manner  as 
to  secure  a  firm  and  even  surface,  rising  in  the  mid- 
dle by  a  gradual  arch : 

3.  The  ditches  on  each  side  thereof  shall,  when 
practicable,  be  so  made,  as  to  render  easy  the  passing 
of  sleighs  therein,  and  shall  be  so  formed  as  to  permit 
carriages  conveniently  to  pass  on  and  off  the  turnpike, 
where  it  shall  be  intersected  by  other  roads. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  217 

4.  It  shall  be  made  of  such  width  as  may  be  practi- 
cable, not  less  than  twenty-two  feet  in  anyone  place; 
and  without  a  ditch  on  the  lower  side  in  each  place 
where,  on  account  of  the  steepness  of  side-hills  or 
rocks,  it  cannot,  in  the  opinion  of  the  commissioners, 
be  made  of  the  full  width  above  required : 

5.  The  lower  side,  where  it  shall  not  be  of  full 
width,  shall  be  furnished  with  a  strong  and  sufficient 
fender  or  railing,  of  the  height  of  at  least  four  feet 
above  the  surface  of  the  road  along  which  such  fender 
shall  be  constructed. 

§21.  A  mile  stone  or  post  shall  be  erected  and 
maintained  by  the  corporation  on  each  mile  of  the 
road,  on  which  shall  be  fairly  and  legibly  marked  or 
inscribed,  the  distance  of  such  stone  or  post  from  the 
place  of  the  commencement  of  the  road ;  and  when 
such  road  shall  commence  at  the  end  of  any  other 
road,  having  mile  stones  or  posts,  on  which  the  dis- 
tance from  any  city  or  town  is  marked,  a  continuation 
of  that  distance  shall  in  like  manner  be  inscribed. 

§  22.  A  guide  post  shall  also  be  erected  at  the  inter- 
section of  every  public  road,  leading  into  or  from  the 
turnpike,  on  which  shall  be  inscribed  the  name  of  the 
place  to  which  such  intersecting  road  leads,  in  the  di- 
rection to  which  the  name  on  the  guide  post  shall 
point. 

§  23.  No  director  of  the  corporation  to  which  it  shall 
belong,  shall  be  concerned  directly  or  indirectly  in 
any  contract  for  the  making  or  working  of  the  road, 
or  any  part  thereof,  during  the  time  he  shall  be  a  di- 
rector. 

§  24.  No  contractor  for  the  making  of  such  road,  or 
28 


218  APPENDIX. 

any  part  thereof,  shall  make  a  new  contract  for  the 
performance  of  his  work,  or  any  part  thereof,  other 
than  by  hiring  hands,  teams,  carriages  or  utensils,  to 
be  superintended  and  paid  by  himself,  unless  such 
new  contract  and  its  terms  be  laid  before  the  board  of 
directors,  and  be  approved  by  them. 

§  25.  After  the  road  shall  have  been  laid  out  by  the 
commissioners,  the  president  and  directors  of  the  com- 
pany to  which  it  shall  belong,  may  agree  with  the 
owners  of  the  land  through  which  it  shall  pass,  for 
the  purchase  of  so  much  thereof  as  shall  be  necessary 
for  the  making  of  the  road,  and  the  accommodation 
of  gates,  toll-houses,  and  other  works  thereto  belong- 
ing. 

§  26.  In  every  case  where  the  owner  of  land  so  re- 
quired, shall  be  absent  from  the  county,  or  shall  not 
from  any  cause  be  capable  in  law,  so  to  agree,  or  shall 
refuse  to  agree,  the  value  of  such  land,  and  the  dama- 
ges to  the  owners,  shall  be  ascertained,  in  the  man- 
ner following : 

1.  One  of  the  judges  not  interested  in  the  road,  of 
the  court  of  common  pleas  of  the  county  in  which  the 
land  shall  be  situated,  upon  application  of  the  presi- 
dent and  directors,  shall  by  an  instrument  in  writing, 
signed  by  him,  appoint  three  freeholders  of  the  coun- 
ty, not  inhabitants  of  any  town  through  which  the 
road  shall  pass,  and  not  interested  in  the  road  or  lands 
to  be  appraised,  as  appraisers. 

2.  The  president  and  directors  shall  give  notice  to 
the  appraisers  of  their  appointment,  and  the  apprais- 
ers, or  any  two  of  them,  shall  thereupon  name  a  day 
for  meeting  on  the  land,  and  performing  the  duties  re- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  219 

quired  of  them ;  which  day  shall  not  be  more  than 
twenty,  nor  less  than  ten  days,  from  such  notice  of 
their  appointment. 

3.  The  president  and  directors  shall  give  at  least 
ten  days'  notice  to  the  owners  of  the  land  required,  of 
the  time  and  place  of  meeting,  so  appointed  by  the  ap- 
praisers ;  but  if  any  such  owner  be  absent,  or  subject 
to  any  legal  disability  to  contract,  a  copy  of  such  no- 
tice may  be  left  at  the  dwelling-house  of  such  owner, 
or  at  some  public  place  on  the  lands  to  be  appraised. 

4.  Each  appraiser,  before  he  shall  proceed  to  exe- 
cute his  trust,  shall  take  and  subscribe  in  writing,  be- 
fore a  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  county,  the  oath  or 
affirmation  prescribed  in  the  constitution  of  this  state. 

5.  The  appraisers  shall  then  proceed  to  view  the 
premises,  and  without  favor  or  partiality,  to  assess  the 
damages  sustained  by  the  respective  owners  of  the 
lands  deemed  necessary  by  the  president  and  direct- 
ors, to  be  taken  and  appropriated  for  the  road. 

6.  They  shall  make  an  inquisition,  under  their 
hands  and  seals,  or  the  hands  and  seals  of  any  two  of 
them,  describing  such  land,  and  stating  the  amount  of 
damages,  if  any,  which  each  owner  of  lands  or  im- 
provements so  taken  and  appropriated,  has  sustained, 
or  will  sustain,  in  consequence  thereof: 

7.  The  inquisition  shall  be  acknowledged  by  the 
appraisers  signing  it,  before  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
county  in  which  the  lands  are  situated,  and  so  ac- 
knowledged, shall  be  filed  by  them,  together  with 
their  oath  or  affirmation  of  office,  in  the  clerk's  office 
of  such  county,  within  thirty  days  after  it  shall  have 
been  made,  to  be  by  such  clerk  recorded  in  a  book  for 
recording  deeds,  at  the  expense  of  the  corporation. 


220  APPENDIX. 

§27.  The  president  and  directors,  upon  payment 
of  the  several  sums  so  assessed  as  damages,  in  the  in- 
quisition so  made,  or  upon  making  a  legal  tender 
thereof,  when  the  moneys  shall  be  refused,  shall  be 
entitled  to  enter  on  the  lands  described  in  the  inquisi- 
tion, and  shall  have  and  hold  the  same,  to  them,  their 
successors  and  assigns  forever. 

§  28.  If  on  any  parcel  of  the  lands  so  described, 
there  shall  be  no  person  then  living,  authorized  to  re- 
ceive the  damages  assessed  for  such  parcel,  and  such 
damages  shall  not  have  been  lawfully  demanded, 
within  ten  days  after  the  filing  of  such  inquisition,  the 
president  and  directors  may  enter  thereon,  without 
payment  or  tender  of  such  damages ;  but  subject  to 
such  payment  whenever  the  same  shall  be  thereafter 
lawfully  required. 

§  29.  Such  president  and  directors  shall  not  enter 
on  and  take  possession  of  any  public  highway,  until 
it  shall  have  been  appraised  and  paid  for,  in  the  same 
manner  as  private  property,  and  the  amount  apprais- 
ed for  each  highway  so  taken,  shall  be  paid  to  the 
commissioners  of  highways  in  the  town  to  which  it 
shall  belong,  to  be  by  them  applied  in  improving  the 
roads  in  such  town. 

§  30.  Whenever  an  appraisement  shall  be  made  of 
the  lands  on  any  old  road,  used  as  such  by  prescrip- 
tion, on  which  a  turnpike  shall  be  laid  out,  the  ap- 
praisers shall  set  down  the  value  of  the  soil  and  of  the 
improvements,  and  the  moneys  paid  by  any  town  for 
making  such  improvements,  in  separate  sums ;  and 
the  sum  for  which  the  soil  is  appraised  shall  be  paid 
to  the  owners  thereof,  and  the  value  of  the  improve- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  221 

merits,  and  the  sums  paid  therefor,  by  any  town,  shall 
be  paid  to  the  commissioners  of  highways  of  the  town 
in  which  such  old  road  shall  be  situated. 

§  31.  The  president  and  directors  procuring  the  ap- 
pointment, shaM  pay  to  the  judge  for  appointing  ap- 
praisers, one  dollar,  and  to  each  appraiser,  two  dollars 
for  every  day  he  shall  be  necessarily  employed  in  his 
duties  as  such. 

ART.  III. —  Of  tolls,  and  their  collection.  - 

§  32.  As  soon  as  the  president  and  directors  of  any 
company  incorporated  under  this  Title  shall  have 
completed  their  road,  or  any  ten  miles  thereof,  they 
shall  give  notice  thereof  to  the  governor,  who  shall 
thereupon  appoint  three  discreet  freeholders,  not  in- 
terested in  any  turnpike,  to  view  the  road  as  descri- 
bed in  the  notice,  and  to  report  to  him,  in  writing, 
whether  the  same  is  completed  in  a  workmanlike 
manner,  according  to  the  requisitions  of  this  Title, 
and  of  the  act  of  incorporation. 

§  33.  If  such  report  shall  be  in  the  affirmative,  it 
shall  be  the  duty  of  the  governor,  by  license  under 
his  hand,  and  the  privy  seal  of  the  state,  to  permit 
the  president  and  directors  to  erect  so  many  gates  and 
turnpikes  on  the  road  reported,  as  shall  be  sufficient 
for  the  collection  thereon,  of  the  tolls  authorized  by 
law. 

§  34.  The  president  and  directcdrs  shall  then  ap- 
point toll-gatherers  to  collect,  at  each  gate  so  erected, 
from  the  persons  using  the  road,  such  toll  as  shall  be 
authorized  in  their  act  of  incorporation. 

§35.  Each  toll-gatherer  may  detain  and  prevent 


222  APPENDIX. 

from  passing  through  his  gate,  the  persons  riding, 
leading  or  driving  animals  or  carriages  subject  to  toll, 
until  they  shall  have  paid  respctively  the  tolls  author- 
ized by  law. 

§  36.  No  tolls  shall  be  collected  at  any  gate  of  any 
company  incorporated  under  this  Title  in  either  of 
the  following  cases : 

1.  From  any  person  passing  to  or  from  public  wor- 
ship, or  a  funeral ;  to  or  from  a  grist  mill  for  grinding 
of  grain  for  family  use ;  or  to  or  from  the  blacksmith's 
shop  to  which  he  usually  resorts  for  work  there  to  be 
done. 

2.  From  any  person  going  for  a  physician  or  mid- 
wife, or  returning  from  such  errand ;  going  to  or  re- 
turning from  court  when  legally  summoned  as  a  juror 
or  witness ;  going  to  or  returning  from  a  militia  train- 
ing, which  by  law,  he  is  required  to  attend  ;  or  going 
to  a  town  meeting  or  election  at  which  he  is  entitled 
to  vote,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  such  vote,  and  re- 
turning therefrom: 

3.  From  any  person  residing  within  one  mile  of 
the  gate  at  which  toll  is  demanded,  unless  he  shall  be 
employed  in  the  carriage  or  transportation  of  the  prop- 
erty of  other  persons,  not  so  residing: 

4.  From  troops  in  the  service  of  this  state,  or  of  the 
United  States. 

§  37.  From  carriages  having  wheels,  of  which  the 
tire  or  track  is, 

L  Twelve  inches  wide,  no  tolls : 

2.  Nine  inches  wide,  one-fourth  only  of  the  tolls 
otherwise  payable : 

3.  Six  inches  wide,  one-half  only  of  such  tolls, 
Shall  be  collected. 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  223 

§  38.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president  and  di- 
rectors, to  affix  and  keep  up,  at  or  over  each  gate,  in 
some  conspicuous  place;  so  as  to  be  conveniently 
read,  a  printed  list  of  the  rates  of  toll  demandable  at 
such  gate. 

ART.  IV. —  General  provisions  embracing  corpora-' 

tions  now  existing. 

§  39.  In  each  county  of  this  state,  in  which  there  is 
or  shall  be  any  turnpike  road,  there  shall  be  not  less 
than  three,  nor  more  than  five  inspectors  of  turnpikes, 
neither  of  whom  shall  be  interested  in  any  turnpike 
within  the  state. 

§  40.  The  persons  appointed  to  such  office,  shall  be 
the  inspectors  of  all  the  turnpike  roads  within  their 
county,  except  in  cases  where,  by  the  act  of  incorpo- 
ration, a  special  provision  for  the  inspection  of  the 
road  is  made.  But  where  the  president,  directors  and 
company  of  any  turnpike  shall  have  refused  or  ne- 
glected to  obtain  the  appointment  of  inspectors  of  their 
road,  or  when  there  shall  be  no  inspectors  of  such 
road  in  office,  or  those  in  office  shall  refuse  or  neglect 
to  serve  when  called  upon,  the  county  inspectors, 
shall,  in  respect  to  such  turnpike,  exercise  all  the 
powers  conferred  by  this  Article,  until  inspectors  for 
such  road  shall  be  appointed  according  to  the  act  in- 
corporating the  same,  and  until  such  inspectors  shall 
accept  their  appointment  and  agree  to  serve. 

§  41.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  each  inspector  to  whom 
a  complaint  in  writing  shall  be  made,  that  a  turnpike 
road,  or  a  part  of  such  road,  in  his  county  is  out  of 
repair,  without  delay  to  view  and  examine  the  road 


224  APPENDIX. 

complained  of;  and  if  he  shall  find  such  complaint  to 
be  just,  he  shall  give  notice  in  writing  of  the  defect, 
to  the  toll-gatherer,  or  person  attending  the  gate  near- 
est to  each  place  out  of  repair,  and  in  such  notice, 
may,  in  his  discretion,  order  such  gate  to  be  thrown 
open  ;  but  no  inspector  or  inspectors  shall  order  such 
gate  to  be  opened,  unless  a  notice  in  writing  shall 
have  been  served  on  the  gate-keeper  nearest  to  the 
place  out  of  repair,  particularly  describing  such  place, 
at  least  three  days  previous  to  making  such  order. 

§  42.  Immediately  after  the  service  of  such  notice, 
each  gate  ordered  to  be  thrown  open,  shall  be  opened ; 
nor  shall  it  be  again  shut,  nor  any  toll  be  collected 
thereat,  until  one  of  the  inspectors  for  the  county, 
shall  have  granted  a  certificate,  that  the  road  is  in 
sufficient  repair,  and  that  such  gate  ought  to  be  closed. 

§  43.  Whenever  any  part  of  a  turnpike  road  shall 
be  out  of  repair,  and  the  gate  to  which  it  has  relation, 
is  situated  in  an  adjoining  county  for  which  inspect- 
ors shall  have  been  appointed,  such  inspectors,  upon 
a  complaint  in  writing,  shall  view  and  examine  the 
road  complained  of,  and  proceed  thereon  according 
to  the  provisions  of  this  Article,  in  like  manner  as  if 
the  road  so  complained  of  was  within  the  county 
where  such  gate  is  situated. 

§  44.  Every  keeper  of  a  gate  ordered  to  be  thrown 
Open,  who  shall  not  immediately  obey  such  order,  or 
Who  shall  not  keep  open  such  gate  until  a  certificate 
permitting  it  to  be  closed  shall  be  granted,  or  who, 
during  the  time  such  gate  ought  to  be  open,  shall  hin- 
der or  delay  any  person  in  passing,  or  take  or  demand 
any  tolls  from  any  person  passing,  shall,  for  each  of- 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  225 

fence,  forfeit  the  sum  of  ten  dollars  to  the  party  ag- 
grieved. 

§  45.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  each  inspector,  who, 
upon  due  examination,  shall  have  discovered  a  turn- 
pike road  within  his  county  to  be  out  of  repair,  or 
that  any  gate  theron  is  placed  in  a  situation  contrary 
to  law,  to  give  notice  in  writing  of  such  defect  or  de- 
fault, to  one  or  more  of  the  directors  of  the  company 
to  which  such  road  shall  belong. 

'§  46.  In  such  notice,  he  shall  require  the  defective 
road  to  be  repaired,  or  the  gate  improperly  placed  to 
be  removed,  within  a  certain  time  to  be  fixed  in  the 
notice ;  and  in  his  discretion,  may  order,  that  in  the 
mean  time,  the  gates  on  such  road,  or  such  of  them 
as  he  shall  specify,  be  thrown  open. 

§  47.  If  the  requisitions  of  such  notice  be  not  obey- 
ed, it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  inspector,  to  make  im- 
mediate complaint  to  the  attorney- general,  or  the  dis- 
trict attorney  for  the  county,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to 
prosecute  the  delinquent  company,  in  the  name  of  the 
people  of  this  state.  Such  corporation,  if  convicted 
of  having  suffered  their  road  to  be  out  of  repair,  or 
having  placed  one  or  more  of  the  gates  thereon  in  a 
situation  contrary  to  law,  shall  be  fined  in  a  sum  not 
exceeding  two  hundred  dollars. 

§  48  To  each  inspector  of  turnpikes,  who  shall  view 
a  turnpike  road  upon  complaint  made  to  him,  shall  be 
allowed  the  sum  of  two  dollars  for  each  day  spent  by 
him  in  the  performance  of  such  duty.  If  he  shall  ad- 
judge the  road  viewed  to  be  out  of  repair,  such  fees 
shall  be  paid  by  the  company  to  which  the  road  shall 
29 


226  APPENDIX. 

belong ;  otherwise,  they  shall  be  paid  by  the  party 
making  the  complaint. 

§49.  Such  fees,  when  payable  by  the  company, 
shall  be  paid  by  the  toll-gatherer  nearest  the  road  ad- 
judged out  of  repair,  on  demand. and  out  of  the  tolls 
received  or  to  be  received  by  him ;  and  may  be  recov- 
ered, with  costs,  of  such  toll -gatherer,  if  he  shall  ne- 
glect or  refuse  to  make  such  payment. 

§  50.  Every  toll-gatherer,  who,  at  any  turnpike 
gate,  shall  unreasonably  hinder  or  delay  any  traveller 
or  passenger  liable  to  the  payment  of  toll,  or  shall  de- 
mand and  receive  from  any  person  more  toll  than  by 
law  he  is  authorized  to  collect,  shall  for  each  offence, 
forfeit  the  sum  of  five  dollars  to  the  person  aggrieved. 

§51.  Whenever  a  judgment  is  obtained  against  a 
toll-gatherer  for  a  penalty,  or  for  damages,  for  acts 
done  or  omitted  to  be  done  by  him  in  his  capacity  of 
toll-gatherer,  and  goods  and  chattels  of  the  defendant 
to  satisfy  such  judgment  cannot  be  found,  it  shall  be 
satisfied  by  the  corporation  whose  officer  he  shall  be ; 
and  if,  on  demand,  payment  be  refused  by  the  corpo- 
ration, the  amount  thereof  may  be  recovered,  with 
costs,  of  such  corporation. 

§  52.  The  president  and  directors  of  every  turnpike 
corporation  created  or  to  be  created,  may  from  time  to 
time  commute  with  any  person,  whose  place  of  abode 
shall  adjoin  or  be  near  to  their  road,  for  the  toll  pay- 
able at  the  nearest  gate  on  each  side  of  such  place  of 
abode ;  but  no  such  commutation  shall  be  for  a  longer 
time  than  one  year,  and  it  may  be  renewed  at  the  end 
of  each  period  for  which  it  shall  be  made. 

§  53.  Whenever  the  day  of  election  for  directors  of 


TREATISE  ON  ROADS.  227 

any  such  corporation  shall  happen  on  a  Sunday,  such 
election  shall  be  held  on  the  day  next  following1. 
§  54.  Every  person  who  shall, 

1.  Wilfully  break,  cut  down,  deface  or  injure  any 
mile  stone  or  post,  on  any  turnpike  road :  or, 

2.  Wilfully  break  or  throw  down  any  gate  or  turn- 
pike on  such  road :  or, 

3.  Dig  up  or  spoil  any  part  of  such  road,  or  any 
thing  thereunto  belonging:  or, 

4.  Forcibly  or  fraudulently  pass  any  gate  thereon, 
without  having  paid  the  legal  toll: 

For  each  offence,  shall  forfeit  to  the  corporation  in- 
jured, the  sura  of  twenty  five  dollars,  in  addition  to 
the  damages  resulting  from  his  wrongful  act. 

§  55.  Every  person  who,  to  avoid  the  payment  of 
the  legal  toll,  shall,  with  his  team,  carriage  or  horse, 
turn  out  of  a  turnpike  road,  or  pass  any  gate  thereon, 
on  ground  adjacent  thereto,  and  again  enter  on  such 
road,  shall  for  each  offence  forfeit  the  sum  of  five  dol- 
lars to  the  corporation  injured. 

§  56.  No  hoist-gate  shall  be  erected  on  any  turn- 
pike, unless  it  be  suspended  by  a  chain  and  weight 
equally  balanced,  so  as  to  require  manual  force  to 
raise  and  lower  such  gate ;  and  every  turnpike  com- 
pany violating  this  provision,  shall  forfeit  five  dollars 
for  every  twenty-four  hours  such  gate  shall  remain 
erected,  to  any  person  who  will  prosecute  for  the 
same,  not  being  a  director,  stockholder  or  agent  of 
such  company. 


ERRATA. 

The  intelligent  reader  will  have  perceived  several  typographical 
errors  in  the  foregoing  pages.  Among  these  are  the  following: 

Page  69,  line  4th,  for  material,  read  materials.  Same  page  bot- 
tom line,  for  improventis,  rend  improvement  is.  Page  119,  for  sate, 
read  state.  Page  173,  for  Conford  read  Cromford:  for  Longbo- 
rough,  read  I^oughborough :  for  Glamorganshire,  read  Glamorgan- 
shire :  for  Warwick  and  Hampton,  read  Wanricli  and  Napton,  &c. 


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